I would not really trust that: Setting up a 99.99% reliable system, so they can keep 99.99% of the customers' money, is probably less profitable than a 90% reliable system that lets them keep 90% of the money.
Errrr... except that the guarantees don't work like that. It's usually something like, "We offer 99.99% uptime, which means we are allowed 5 minutes of downtime a month. And for every 15 minutes we're down over that amount, we'll knock $X off your monthly bill."
I have no respect for any company whose sales staff claim 100% uptime or 100% reliable coverage.
Ummm... the ends of those sentence fragments are usually "... or your money back."
In other words, they aren't promising 100%, just an attempt at 100% with you being compensated if it's less than that. Obviously they have a financial incentive to keep it at 100%.
You've just described a "D" customer, and one that any reputable automotive repair facility would turn away or at least prefer not to take as a customer.
Here's the problem. The code doesn't tell you what is wrong with the car. It tells you which area is generating a code. It's like going to a PC technician, and saying, 'I'm getting a blue screen,' and then asking them to replace the monitor or the video card to fix the problem.
Instead of trying to cheap your way out of it, buy a quality automotive, and spend time researching the technicians in your area instead of looking for the cheapest place you can find. You get what you pay for. I'd rather pay an honest, quality technician that is going to diagnose the PROBLEM and fix it once and for all. Not some parts changing monkey that will tell me any price to get me in the door, and just throw parts at it, either because they don't know how to repair a vehicle, or because you are insisting that is how the repair should be done.
The Federal government, by way of its regulation of electionic media and control of all sorts of information, has essentially turned the press into the public relations arm of the political class.
Then how come there's so much anti-Bush viewpoints flying all over television? Man, our government really got the raw end of that deal.
And been that way for about 228 years, same as in every country on Earth.
A constitution that has no meaning, because not a single line of it hasn't been overruled.
The Constitution has been trampled, both by the left and the right, for their own purposes. However, I do believe you are stretching the truth a wee bit!
An obesity epidemic that is among the world's most severe.
As a result of the success of America, many of our citizens have too much food to eat and are lazy. I still prefer this to a famine.
The US's last election was rigged (at least the Florida portion of it was) and no one cared.
God, I am so tired of hearing this complete and utter bullshit. People actually believe this. I live in Florida. What the people that repeat the above lie never mention:
- The initial count in Florida had Bush winning. - The official recount showed Bush winning. - Many of the nation's newspapers came down and oversaw another recount of all votes, and BUSH WON THAT ALSO.
Then these people say, well it was rigged for Bush! Prove it, or STFU. I still remember Gore sending a team of lawyers to Florida with the objective of discounting as many votes from the military as they possibly could. One tactic was to try and get the votes thrown out because the soldier left the date or similar detail off the absentee ballot.
Then you say, "well, those kinds of details matter!"
Well, what about the details of punching the hole for your choice all the way through the ballot, especially when other holes in your ballot have been disturbed? Don't those details matter, also?
Both sides fucked around legally after the fact, but that doesn't discount the main point, that Bush came out ahead in the three major recounts.
P.S. I am a registered Libertarian and vote that way, so I'm right between the two parties and have no vested interest in Bush or Gore. But lies are lies.
I'd bitch about the US more, but my own country (Canada) is trying to become the US as fast as it can.
No, please, keep going. We love to hear the uninformed bitchings of our Canadian brethren.
Yes, you are right, the check engine light can indicate a myriad of problems, not just emissions. My 99% figure was an indication of the most common reason it comes on. Yes, the gas cap being loose is an emissions problem, because the gas cap must remain tight for the emissions system to work properly. I did RTFA, and in the case of this girl and her *KIA* POS, there was likely some other problem related to the gas tank/cap or emissions system.
However, I don't see a problem with an emissions testing (smog testing) facility telling you to get the check engine light looked into before they will bother testing the car, due to the high number of times that indicator comes on for emissions problems.
I have many friends who are honest/awesome automotive technicians, and I can tell you half the people being rated highly on this discussion have not clue one when it comes to automotive repair. Witness the number of people here who think having someone read the code as being a way to let you fix the car by throwing parts at it...
Here in good 'ol New Joisey, any 'newer' car (I believe '96 or newer) gets a computer test instead of the rod-up-the-tailpipe test. If your check-engine light is on, you automatically fail the test -- they won't even plug into the computer.
That's because the 'check engine light' indicates an emissions problem, 99% of the time. Therefore if it is turned on, your emissions system is not performing to spec and you will not even be tested until the problem is resolved.
Now, do you smell a racket here or what?
No?
Isn't it in your mechanic's interest to conveniently have that irritating-yet-not-telling-you-anything check engine light go on, so you have to bring it back to be inspected for $75?
Why are you blaming the automotive technician for a problem with your car?
Grr... just another screw-job.
I am totally missing your point. If you don't trust your auto tech, find a good one. There are directories available on the net of certified technicians that are honest. One is called iTAN I think, check google.
Keep in mind, there's a LOT more to diagnosing and fixing a modern car then what you imply, "plug it in and get the magic code that tells you what needs to be fixed." You might get lucky some of the time, and a trouble code leads you to the right part. But often times you'll be lead astray, replacing stuff that doesn't need to be replaced.
This is why you should take your car to a professional automotive technician, not 'the cheapest guy around'.
Well, I suppose i can't...but that is largely because when Cheney took over at Haliburton, he cornered the market in certain areas (like Boots and Coots, who are controlled by Kellog and Brown, who is owned by halliburton). He then began lobbying the Clinton administration to go back to Iraq.
Is that why the Clinton administration chose to go with Halliburton in Kosovo, even though they hadn't won the LOGCAP competitive bidding process? Why did they do that anyway? Hmmm. And now Halliburton HAS won and holds the current bid for LOGCAP, is the de facto choice to use in Iraq and Afghanistan, and people try to pin this on Cheney.
If you don't know what LOGCAP is, and you think Cheney has somehow gotten this deal for Halliburton, then do some fucking research.
Especially if they're copying the movie themselves during late-night private screenings.
Why do you think the film studios are now branding the film that goes out with those orange/red dots that annoy details-oriented people in the theatres?
If RTZ wants to pay their African workers one bag of rice a week for 50 hours in dangerous conditions (which they do) nothing's going to stop them.
If it was truly a free market there, you'd have other companies competing for these workers.
If India call centre workers want a decent wage there's nothing stopping the work going to China or, indeed, to slaves in any country. There's plenty of slavery in the US and the UK let alone shit-holes like China, or did you not know that?
Slavery is a crime in the US and the UK, and in most civilized places. That is not what I am arguing about here. If an employee is free to choose another place of employment, then the company they work for should be free to offer them whatever wages they wish to offer. If the employee doesn't like it, let them go elsewhere.
If it is truly slavery, then these people need to be freed.
Are you saying RTZ and whoever Alan Cox works for is employing slave labor? If so, prove it. If not, stop libelling them.
Quit listening to the libertarians. Those people are regular neo-cons.
I'm not exactly sure what your point is, but I am a Libertarian.
Hell, the Republican party is more liberal than the libertarians.
Yeah, too bad they've turned fiscally liberal instead of socially liberal. I think you are confused as to what Libertarian ideas are.
Really? Well, keep in mind that there is already an extensive network of non-public schools that you could go to if you have the money. How exactly does it solve the problem?
Which problem? It doesn't solve the problem of the government wasting tax money. For that you'll need all private schools, and to keep the federal government out of the education business.
Yes. If the money was earmarked for buying network equipment, which it was, they might as well get all the network equipment they could possibly want.
No, they'd buy the equipment they needed, and save the rest of the money for when they needed other goods. If they had a surplus they'd invest it elsewhere.
If I give you 10 million dollars for the sole purpose of upgrading your internet connection, wouldn't you try to spend it all? Possibly on stuff you will never need?
You have a serious misunderstanding of how a for-profit company works. It's not a magical never-ending supply of free money that you can buy whatever you wish with!
Do you think some poor kid in an inner-city ghetto is going to have good parents and the drive to succeed? Hell no.
That's his problem, not the government's. There are plenty of poor kids that do have the drive, and would earn scholarships to go to private schools just as poor kids earn them now to attend universities.
Why should my money be taken away via taxes to try and force some kid with no desire to go to school, disrupting classes for kids trying to learn?
Maybe if you weren't so ignorant you would know why most civilized countries, including the US, have mandatory schooling.
Because they are the perfect place to indoctrinate children into the government's way of thinking?
Who's ignorant here?
Why do you think schools are rampant with liberalism and the ideas that "more government is better"?
Quit deluding yourself. Private schools have no interest in letting poor people attend. So they will most likely simply disallow them.
Disallow them? Private schools will take those willing to pay. This is where scholarships come in for those that have the desire to learn.
Unlike you, I (and the Constitution) see no need for the federal government to be in charge of teaching our children.
Just worry about what you like to do and not what others like to do. If the rest of the world wants to watch H2G2 on film instead of the book, SO WHAT? Are they taking your book away?
As a European I believe you'd better hve such a program run by independant beaurocrats than For Profit commercial interests.
As an American I think we'd have a better program if the school system wasn't controlled by the government.
Do you think a for-profit private school would have wasted their budget money like this?
But Unpossible, how will poor kids go to private schools? Through scholarship programs, through charity, through hard work. Those that have good parents and want to be educated will be educated.
Sorry, it just really annoys me when you get that stereotypical person in a movie thread complaining about a movie being made, usually in reference to a 'sacred work of fiction'. DON'T WATCH IT AND SHUT UP ABOUT IT. Allow me to elaborate...
But I guess , illusions provided by a book cannot be enjoyed by everyone... some just need a little "CG" help.
Some of us like to enjoy the creative visions of others as well.
Many people get a thrill from watching a well-constructed 2-minute trailer for a good movie, just as some of us like to watch a well-constructed 2-hour "trailer" of a good book.
It's not the same as reading the book, they are two separate types of enjoyment.
And sometimes the movie is actually better. E.g., IMO, The Shawshank Redemption. In my book-reading, I don't have the benefit of great actors, the voice over of Morgan Freeman, or the music of Thomas Newman to enhance the story.
Slashdot Mirror
I would not really trust that:
Setting up a 99.99% reliable system, so they can keep 99.99% of the customers' money, is probably less profitable than a 90% reliable system that lets them keep 90% of the money.
Errrr... except that the guarantees don't work like that. It's usually something like, "We offer 99.99% uptime, which means we are allowed 5 minutes of downtime a month. And for every 15 minutes we're down over that amount, we'll knock $X off your monthly bill."
Is it really that expensive to produce large scale OLED/LCD/plasma displays?
Yes.
It seems regular ol' televisions have gone down in price, why not these larger flat panels?
Completely different technology.
Is it going to be another 10-20 years before I can afford a reasonably priced unit?
No, more like 3-5 years. Just like rear-projection HDTV's used to be super expensive, now you can get them for $2000.
But I wouldn't look for a big price drop with flat panels until OLED starts cranking...
so, java and solaris will be open source, and hardware will be free. so basically we'll be paying for our work?
Only if you work for Sun.
I have no respect for any company whose sales staff claim 100% uptime or 100% reliable coverage.
Ummm... the ends of those sentence fragments are usually "... or your money back."
In other words, they aren't promising 100%, just an attempt at 100% with you being compensated if it's less than that. Obviously they have a financial incentive to keep it at 100%.
read this book
You've just described a "D" customer, and one that any reputable automotive repair facility would turn away or at least prefer not to take as a customer.
Here's the problem. The code doesn't tell you what is wrong with the car. It tells you which area is generating a code. It's like going to a PC technician, and saying, 'I'm getting a blue screen,' and then asking them to replace the monitor or the video card to fix the problem.
Instead of trying to cheap your way out of it, buy a quality automotive, and spend time researching the technicians in your area instead of looking for the cheapest place you can find. You get what you pay for. I'd rather pay an honest, quality technician that is going to diagnose the PROBLEM and fix it once and for all. Not some parts changing monkey that will tell me any price to get me in the door, and just throw parts at it, either because they don't know how to repair a vehicle, or because you are insisting that is how the repair should be done.
DEC has prior art on this.
The Federal government, by way of its regulation of electionic media and control of all sorts of information, has essentially turned the press into the public relations arm of the political class.
Then how come there's so much anti-Bush viewpoints flying all over television? Man, our government really got the raw end of that deal.
I suppose you think democracy is when the US installs a political process in a country.
If the political process installed allows the people of the country to vote for the people they wish to represent them in their government, then yes.
Try looking up the word 'democracy' next time dumbass.
I am going to take these out of order.
The lying-est politicians ever known.
And been that way for about 228 years, same as in every country on Earth.
A constitution that has no meaning, because not a single line of it hasn't been overruled.
The Constitution has been trampled, both by the left and the right, for their own purposes. However, I do believe you are stretching the truth a wee bit!
An obesity epidemic that is among the world's most severe.
As a result of the success of America, many of our citizens have too much food to eat and are lazy. I still prefer this to a famine.
The US's last election was rigged (at least the Florida portion of it was) and no one cared.
God, I am so tired of hearing this complete and utter bullshit. People actually believe this. I live in Florida. What the people that repeat the above lie never mention:
- The initial count in Florida had Bush winning.
- The official recount showed Bush winning.
- Many of the nation's newspapers came down and oversaw another recount of all votes, and BUSH WON THAT ALSO.
Then these people say, well it was rigged for Bush! Prove it, or STFU. I still remember Gore sending a team of lawyers to Florida with the objective of discounting as many votes from the military as they possibly could. One tactic was to try and get the votes thrown out because the soldier left the date or similar detail off the absentee ballot.
Then you say, "well, those kinds of details matter!"
Well, what about the details of punching the hole for your choice all the way through the ballot, especially when other holes in your ballot have been disturbed? Don't those details matter, also?
Both sides fucked around legally after the fact, but that doesn't discount the main point, that Bush came out ahead in the three major recounts.
P.S. I am a registered Libertarian and vote that way, so I'm right between the two parties and have no vested interest in Bush or Gore. But lies are lies.
I'd bitch about the US more, but my own country (Canada) is trying to become the US as fast as it can.
No, please, keep going. We love to hear the uninformed bitchings of our Canadian brethren.
Yes, you are right, the check engine light can indicate a myriad of problems, not just emissions. My 99% figure was an indication of the most common reason it comes on. Yes, the gas cap being loose is an emissions problem, because the gas cap must remain tight for the emissions system to work properly. I did RTFA, and in the case of this girl and her *KIA* POS, there was likely some other problem related to the gas tank/cap or emissions system.
However, I don't see a problem with an emissions testing (smog testing) facility telling you to get the check engine light looked into before they will bother testing the car, due to the high number of times that indicator comes on for emissions problems.
I have many friends who are honest/awesome automotive technicians, and I can tell you half the people being rated highly on this discussion have not clue one when it comes to automotive repair. Witness the number of people here who think having someone read the code as being a way to let you fix the car by throwing parts at it...
Indeed there are tools to remap the engine software that use the same OBD port (I've installed this on my BMW)
Ironically, BMW is one of the worst OEM's when it comes to sharing information with independent technicians. Volvo is also, or so I've read.
Here in good 'ol New Joisey, any 'newer' car (I believe '96 or newer) gets a computer test instead of the rod-up-the-tailpipe test. If your check-engine light is on, you automatically fail the test -- they won't even plug into the computer.
That's because the 'check engine light' indicates an emissions problem, 99% of the time. Therefore if it is turned on, your emissions system is not performing to spec and you will not even be tested until the problem is resolved.
Now, do you smell a racket here or what?
No?
Isn't it in your mechanic's interest to conveniently have that irritating-yet-not-telling-you-anything check engine light go on, so you have to bring it back to be inspected for $75?
Why are you blaming the automotive technician for a problem with your car?
Grr... just another screw-job.
I am totally missing your point. If you don't trust your auto tech, find a good one. There are directories available on the net of certified technicians that are honest. One is called iTAN I think, check google.
Keep in mind, there's a LOT more to diagnosing and fixing a modern car then what you imply, "plug it in and get the magic code that tells you what needs to be fixed." You might get lucky some of the time, and a trouble code leads you to the right part. But often times you'll be lead astray, replacing stuff that doesn't need to be replaced.
This is why you should take your car to a professional automotive technician, not 'the cheapest guy around'.
Well, I suppose i can't...but that is largely because when Cheney took over at Haliburton, he cornered the market in certain areas (like Boots and Coots, who are controlled by Kellog and Brown, who is owned by halliburton). He then began lobbying the Clinton administration to go back to Iraq.
Is that why the Clinton administration chose to go with Halliburton in Kosovo, even though they hadn't won the LOGCAP competitive bidding process?
Why did they do that anyway? Hmmm. And now Halliburton HAS won and holds the current bid for LOGCAP, is the de facto choice to use in Iraq and Afghanistan, and people try to pin this on Cheney.
If you don't know what LOGCAP is, and you think Cheney has somehow gotten this deal for Halliburton, then do some fucking research.
Especially if they're copying the movie themselves during late-night private screenings.
Why do you think the film studios are now branding the film that goes out with those orange/red dots that annoy details-oriented people in the theatres?
Watermarking to find the source of pirated video.
He didn't say we educate 10 million not to buy from spam, he said we prevent those 10 million from getting the spam and having a chance to buy.
If RTZ wants to pay their African workers one bag of rice a week for 50 hours in dangerous conditions (which they do) nothing's going to stop them.
If it was truly a free market there, you'd have other companies competing for these workers.
If India call centre workers want a decent wage there's nothing stopping the work going to China or, indeed, to slaves in any country. There's plenty of slavery in the US and the UK let alone shit-holes like China, or did you not know that?
Slavery is a crime in the US and the UK, and in most civilized places. That is not what I am arguing about here. If an employee is free to choose another place of employment, then the company they work for should be free to offer them whatever wages they wish to offer. If the employee doesn't like it, let them go elsewhere.
If it is truly slavery, then these people need to be freed.
Are you saying RTZ and whoever Alan Cox works for is employing slave labor? If so, prove it. If not, stop libelling them.
Quit listening to the libertarians. Those people are regular neo-cons.
I'm not exactly sure what your point is, but I am a Libertarian.
Hell, the Republican party is more liberal than the libertarians.
Yeah, too bad they've turned fiscally liberal instead of socially liberal. I think you are confused as to what Libertarian ideas are.
Really? Well, keep in mind that there is already an extensive network of non-public schools that you could go to if you have the money. How exactly does it solve the problem?
Which problem? It doesn't solve the problem of the government wasting tax money. For that you'll need all private schools, and to keep the federal government out of the education business.
Yes. If the money was earmarked for buying network equipment, which it was, they might as well get all the network equipment they could possibly want.
No, they'd buy the equipment they needed, and save the rest of the money for when they needed other goods. If they had a surplus they'd invest it elsewhere.
If I give you 10 million dollars for the sole purpose of upgrading your internet connection, wouldn't you try to spend it all? Possibly on stuff you will never need?
You have a serious misunderstanding of how a for-profit company works. It's not a magical never-ending supply of free money that you can buy whatever you wish with!
Do you think some poor kid in an inner-city ghetto is going to have good parents and the drive to succeed? Hell no.
That's his problem, not the government's. There are plenty of poor kids that do have the drive, and would earn scholarships to go to private schools just as poor kids earn them now to attend universities.
Why should my money be taken away via taxes to try and force some kid with no desire to go to school, disrupting classes for kids trying to learn?
Maybe if you weren't so ignorant you would know why most civilized countries, including the US, have mandatory schooling.
Because they are the perfect place to indoctrinate children into the government's way of thinking?
Who's ignorant here?
Why do you think schools are rampant with liberalism and the ideas that "more government is better"?
Quit deluding yourself. Private schools have no interest in letting poor people attend. So they will most likely simply disallow them.
Disallow them? Private schools will take those willing to pay. This is where scholarships come in for those that have the desire to learn.
Unlike you, I (and the Constitution) see no need for the federal government to be in charge of teaching our children.
You are wound a bit too tight.
Just worry about what you like to do and not what others like to do. If the rest of the world wants to watch H2G2 on film instead of the book, SO WHAT? Are they taking your book away?
I know, don't feed the trolls and all, but I'm interested if you can tell me what is keeping these low-paid minions in their jobs?
Are they slaves? Or is this a free market?
I don't suppose these people have no marketable skills, do they?
As a European I believe you'd better hve such a program run by independant beaurocrats than For Profit commercial interests.
As an American I think we'd have a better program if the school system wasn't controlled by the government.
Do you think a for-profit private school would have wasted their budget money like this?
But Unpossible, how will poor kids go to private schools? Through scholarship programs, through charity, through hard work. Those that have good parents and want to be educated will be educated.
Sorry, it just really annoys me when you get that stereotypical person in a movie thread complaining about a movie being made, usually in reference to a 'sacred work of fiction'. DON'T WATCH IT AND SHUT UP ABOUT IT. Allow me to elaborate...
But I guess , illusions provided by a book cannot be enjoyed by everyone... some just need a little "CG" help.
Some of us like to enjoy the creative visions of others as well.
Many people get a thrill from watching a well-constructed 2-minute trailer for a good movie, just as some of us like to watch a well-constructed 2-hour "trailer" of a good book.
It's not the same as reading the book, they are two separate types of enjoyment.
And sometimes the movie is actually better. E.g., IMO, The Shawshank Redemption. In my book-reading, I don't have the benefit of great actors, the voice over of Morgan Freeman, or the music of Thomas Newman to enhance the story.
Um, Kerry, one of the Senators from Massachusetts, is a Congressman.
Dude that's like calling a square a rectangle. We know it's a rectangle, but it's more precisely known as a square... dude.
Jump smart... you'll live longer.
Don't jump.
You'll live even longer.