Damnit! I forgot about my sig!
Thanks, sig, for reminding me how unsocial I am...
(I kid. I have some chill friends coming over right now to drink a few glasses of wine and smoke some bowls.;')
You know, I see this response to a lot of Ask Slashdot articles. Especially in any "Ask Slashdot" dealing with law. There's always someone who says "Don't ask Slashdot, stupid!!!" But you know what? I started reading Slashdot when I was a teenager, and I've learned a hell of a lot about a ton of subjects. Slashdot has quite a few very intelligent members that are very knowledgable. And many of these members are not only knowledgable in IT. Many are very knowledgable in law, food, world culture, women, cars, porn, and who knows what else?
When I don't know anything about a subject, many times I have trouble even finding out where to start. Who do I first ask? My friends, my co-workers, my parents... Even if Slashdot isn't the best place to get investment advice, it is a good start. It is definately *not* the final say.
Everything I'm reading here with a score of 4 or 5 is pretty sound financial advice.
I hate to reply to my own comment, but there are a few other things that are important. Maybe not so much in college, but you should definately start working on these as soon as you get out.
Realize that if your parents are still able to help you out, you don't need as big of a safety net. I do not have that luxury, so if I end up on the street without enough cash for rent, it means I get to start my life again from the bottom.
In no particular order...
Try to eventually save enough money to cover 3 to 6 months worth of expenses. College students are probably fine with 3, folks with families will definately want 6.
Make sure you have health insurance, dental, and eye care, and that you actually get checkups once a year. You may play the odds and expect to stay healthy, but seeing a doctor often will greatly reduce your chances of cancer, diabeties, and death. Remember that a single bad incident can make you a broke man fast.
And no matter what happens, getting that college degree will do much to insure that you will always be able to get a decent job with decent pay.
I'm sure I've missed a few, but these are the basic steps needed to guarantee that you'll be able to enjoy your retirement down the line.
Okay, so it's actually 4 steps to becoming rich. (See below.) Here are basic guidelines to how you should save or invest your money. As always, your own life situation will affect how you save money. Pulling money out early completely destroys the purpose of saving it. If you pull out money early you will also probably get hit with penalty fees and taxes as well. For example, pulling money out of a 401k early will cost you 10%(!) of your funds, and that doesn't even include the taxes you will have to pay.
Saving money for over 5-10 years? Buy index funds.
Saving money for 6 months to 5 or more years? Look at Certificates of Deposits (CDs) or bonds.
Need cash where you can easily reach it? (i.e. less than six months) Put it in a savings or money market account. You can find one that has 4-5% interest so at least your money is outpacing inflation. I personally have a ING Savings Account.
You could go balls out and try to make millions starting a company, playing poker, or saving beanie babies... But follow these steps (listed in order from most important to least) and you will easily be a millionare, if not multi-millionare, by the time you retire. These steps apply to everyone.
Live below your means. This means no matter how much you want or deserve something, if you can't afford it you'll have to survive with less. A lot of people have trouble understanding this.
Pay off all credit card debt. No matter how good your investments are, they probably won't make up for the 15-25% interest you are paying on your credit card debts.
If you have a 401k available, use it! My work matches up to 6% of my pay. This is a free 6% raise, that will multiply into an even greator amount by the time I touch it. THIS IS FREE MONEY!!!
After the 401k, put your money in an IRA account. In college you will want to get a Roth IRA. You will be limited to investing only a few grand a year, but max that out if you can!
That's it. If you start following these 4 steps in college, you will have a millionare by the time you are 60.
For anyone who wants to know more about investing, actually picking individual stocks, or just how to become richer in general (there are no quick and easy ways to become rich), I suggest reading the Motley Fool. Good luck!
Send some encouraging words! This is what I just sent.
Hello Michele,
I just read about your recent episode with law enforcement. I do not
normally email strangers, but I wanted to thank you for requesting a
subpoena before handing private data to law enforcement.
It saddens me to think that much of this country just reacts to fear and
emotional pleas. Though I am an engineer at heart, I am very grateful to
the librarians, history teachers, and government teachers in this country
who do what they can to help us remember the past. Thank you for reminding
folks through your actions that we have laws, regulations, and the
Constitution for a reason.
The news report I read stated that your punishment may be as harsh as a
30-day unpaid suspension. I hope that you are instead praised by your
community. I would prefer to see citizens like you serve in government
rather than the mayor who called your actions "a blatant disregard for the
Police Department."
I realize you have many emails to read as hundreds of thousands of people,
if not a million, have heard of your actions by now. Hopefully you have a
lot of encouraging words to read. I don't care what anyone says; you are
not helping the terrorists.;')
There are two different social factions in China. Let's call them the "City-Dweller" and the "Country-Bumkin".
The City-Dweller is the social type that gets taken care of. Lives in the city, makes a decent living, and is required to retire at a certain age. They are also paid to retire as well.
People who don't live in the city have it much worse. It is these rural areas that really feel the brunt of China's economy. It can take several "Country-Bumkins" their entire lives to earn enough money to become a "City-Dweller". These folks are very poor and are the type that are usually happy to work in a sweatshop.
So, to make this clear. People in the City would never work in a sweatshop. Rural folks who can't afford food are really happy to work at these places. Sweatshops suck, but they are still an improvement for many people around the world. Personally, I avoid Walmart and buy USA-made products whenever I can.
I determined a while ago that any private material that becomes public material can be used against you. In about 20 years I expect a metric shit-ton of blackmail material will be available for our future up-and-coming politicians. (Thank you MySpace for embarrassing our future politicians!)
Of course, because I'm smart enough to keep private matters private, I'm automatically disqualified from politics. (Yay!)
Hint: No matter how awesome that frat party was (I don't care *how* crazy those midgets where!), it's probably not a good idea to post those pics until your hangover is gone.
My point is that I fondly remember those old Final Fantasies because they had great stories.
Of course I would rather have all new stories and be blown away by Final Fantasy again, I just don't think Square has the ability to write awe-inpiring plots anymore.
Some buddies of mine were chilling around watching Advent Children the other day. We were lamenting about how Final Fantasy VII blew our minds early on in the game, and kept blowing our minds up until the end. That game instilled a sense of *wonder*, and many late nights were spent just wanting to play a little bit more to find out what the hell was going to happen next! The game before that, Final Fantasy III (or VI for you purists), had a great plot line as well.
However, every single Final Fantasy since then has been good, but *not* the awe-inspiring series we remember. Even the Final Fantasy movies were more about being pretty than about the actual story. The last Final Fantasy I played through was Final Fantasy X, and I always had a feeling that Square was more focused on kick ass cutscenes than having a kick ass story. ='(
Here's my wish list:
Final Fantasy III (VI) being redone with awesome graphics, but with the EXACT SAME CHARACTERS AND STORY LINE! I just want to see how that awesome game could look on the PS3, Wii, whatever...
Final Fantasy VII redone with updated graphics, but with the exact same characters and story line. I have almost no confidence that Square can make a truely AWESOME *story* anymore, rather than just a good story.
Fire their current writers, hire the old ones or some fresh talent, and focus on PLOT and CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. If someone starts talking about how cool some CG cutscene could look, CAN HIS ASS.
I want *great* things for Final Fantasy, I really do. But it just seems it is past it's prime. It's become a money maker for an already rich Square rather than the epic story they used to make when they were a smaller company and closer to bankruptcy.
Strange how this coincides with the theory of "Cosmic cycles" in Hinduism and other Vedic religions like Buddhism
It's not strange at all. With many different religions and each religion having many different sects, how scientists describe how our universe works will seem similar to some religion somewhere.
If you think about it, religion is one way for people to describe what is happening in the world around them.
Personally, I say keep your faith and your science seperate.
Just to add, I have an Army friend in Iraq who tries to play WoW. While local LAN games are popular, he states that he has so much trouble with WoW (especially the Battlegrounds) because of his 8000 second ping. Yes, it would be excruciating to wait 8 seconds for Blizzard's servers to receive your command and then have to wait another 8 seconds to see the result back on your screen.
There are some good days where he gets only a 4000 or 3000 (*Woot!*) ping, but WoW is pretty much unplayable for anything except low level soloing.
And that's insecure? Your run-of-the-mill car can be broken into in about 20 seconds. How'd I know? I managed to leave my keys in my car and called AAA. The guy showed up and had it open in under 20 seconds, just using a coathanger.
From that POV, give me the fancy-pants stuff any time.
The triple A guy would not have been able to do that with these expensive luxury cars. And the 20 minutes the car jackers spend trying to wirelessly crack the car's computer are not spent right next to the car. The thiefs can do it from the safety of their own car while listening to the radio. Once their laptop has cracked the target car's code, they can just walk up, unlock the target car, and drive away.
From that POV, the theif can get a much more expensive car for a lot less risk.
My recent experience with Linux (Ubuntu exactly) went like this.
Kicked my Warcraft habit. (I needed to do this anyway.)
Installed Ubuntu. I've done many a Windows install and this was quite easy! Just as easy as Windows if not easier.
Installing programs is WAY easier. Once I set up the repositories correctly that is... I don't except most people to read up on how to do that. But once I did, search for MySQL and check it off - DONE! Search for XMMS and check it - DONE!
Totem Media Player kept crashing off some audio files I had. And THIS... THIS is where Linux becomes a bitch! If something breaks, I have no idea what to do or even where to start troubleshooting. I *still* haven't gotten Totem working on some audio files. Going to IRC (again, not a step I expect most people would take!) is where I was suggested to install XMMS. XMMS was *easy* to install, but Totem is still broken.
Personal Finance (and other types of programs). Here is another area where Linux sucks in my experience. GnuCash sucks compared to Microsoft Money and Quicken. (Yes, I actually liked Microsoft Money.) But, I guess I just have to wait. I guess it should be expected that Linux software still lags behind Windows software in some areas.
I know that I will become more familiar with Linux over time and figure out how to troubleshoot the proper docs. But my wished for Linux right now:
Make it *ALWAYS* work
Keep help and error messages simple but with a link where people like me who don't mind reading can actually find more information
When something does go wrong make it easy to diagnose!
*All* config files should have a GUI configuration to go along with them. I will want to edit the config files myself after a while, but it's a but overwhelming at first!
Has anybody thought to add a feature to firefox (or maybe an extension) whereby if a user misspells a domain name, it gives the option to correct the spelling?
Just do it as an extension. I don't need that in the brower itself!
Swearing is in my opinion best reserved to expressing extreme emotions. The more they are used the more diluted they become.
As far as I can tell, this is just how our language is evolving. I'm not saying it's a good thing, but hear me out.
There are a lot of words that used to be very very bad but are now seen on TV every day. Ass, asshole, bitch, God damn it, pussy, and even shit and nigger are words that are appearing on TV more and more often. My generation doesn't even see anything wrong with saying, "Damn it!" anymore. "Fuck" is even being used more and more often. You may not agree, but it's a very descriptive word. However, I do agree that it is losing it's impact.
All this means though is that new curses will be created. Stuff like cock gobbler, cuntbag, etc...
I don't know if this means our language is now spiraling downward to vulgarity or if this is just how our language progresses. That is up to your to decide.
That would be more accurate, as the truth is that even according to the original NY Times article, this is what the wiretaps were used for. In seems that has graduated to "domestic wiretapping" for the NY Times, Clinto News Network (CNN), etc. It does not represent reality.
Any time an American citizen is wiretapped, it doesn't matter who is on the other end of the line, it is "domestic wiretapping".
What you also need to remember that in the case of all those examples, government and private entities did a lot, and still do a lot, to prevent these problems from becoming huge problems.
This is similar to the whole Y2K bug. There may have been huge problems. There were huge problems. No one noticed though because billions of dollars were spent to fix them.
SARS may have been a huge problem, but there was a worldwide response to that disease as soon as it appeared.
Slashdot Mirror
That's not compromise. That's synergy!
Damnit! I forgot about my sig! Thanks, sig, for reminding me how unsocial I am... (I kid. I have some chill friends coming over right now to drink a few glasses of wine and smoke some bowls. ;')
...is bliss.
He probably comes to better conclusions than most people (including myself) who don't/can't consider all points of view.
Don't ask slashdot. Or any other IT geeks.
You know, I see this response to a lot of Ask Slashdot articles. Especially in any "Ask Slashdot" dealing with law. There's always someone who says "Don't ask Slashdot, stupid!!!" But you know what? I started reading Slashdot when I was a teenager, and I've learned a hell of a lot about a ton of subjects. Slashdot has quite a few very intelligent members that are very knowledgable. And many of these members are not only knowledgable in IT. Many are very knowledgable in law, food, world culture, women, cars, porn, and who knows what else?
When I don't know anything about a subject, many times I have trouble even finding out where to start. Who do I first ask? My friends, my co-workers, my parents... Even if Slashdot isn't the best place to get investment advice, it is a good start. It is definately *not* the final say.
Everything I'm reading here with a score of 4 or 5 is pretty sound financial advice.
I hate to reply to my own comment, but there are a few other things that are important. Maybe not so much in college, but you should definately start working on these as soon as you get out.
Realize that if your parents are still able to help you out, you don't need as big of a safety net. I do not have that luxury, so if I end up on the street without enough cash for rent, it means I get to start my life again from the bottom.
In no particular order...
I'm sure I've missed a few, but these are the basic steps needed to guarantee that you'll be able to enjoy your retirement down the line.
Okay, so it's actually 4 steps to becoming rich. (See below.) Here are basic guidelines to how you should save or invest your money. As always, your own life situation will affect how you save money. Pulling money out early completely destroys the purpose of saving it. If you pull out money early you will also probably get hit with penalty fees and taxes as well. For example, pulling money out of a 401k early will cost you 10%(!) of your funds, and that doesn't even include the taxes you will have to pay.
You could go balls out and try to make millions starting a company, playing poker, or saving beanie babies... But follow these steps (listed in order from most important to least) and you will easily be a millionare, if not multi-millionare, by the time you retire. These steps apply to everyone.
That's it. If you start following these 4 steps in college, you will have a millionare by the time you are 60.
For anyone who wants to know more about investing, actually picking individual stocks, or just how to become richer in general (there are no quick and easy ways to become rich), I suggest reading the Motley Fool. Good luck!
There are two different social factions in China. Let's call them the "City-Dweller" and the "Country-Bumkin".
The City-Dweller is the social type that gets taken care of. Lives in the city, makes a decent living, and is required to retire at a certain age. They are also paid to retire as well.
People who don't live in the city have it much worse. It is these rural areas that really feel the brunt of China's economy. It can take several "Country-Bumkins" their entire lives to earn enough money to become a "City-Dweller". These folks are very poor and are the type that are usually happy to work in a sweatshop.
So, to make this clear. People in the City would never work in a sweatshop. Rural folks who can't afford food are really happy to work at these places. Sweatshops suck, but they are still an improvement for many people around the world. Personally, I avoid Walmart and buy USA-made products whenever I can.
I determined a while ago that any private material that becomes public material can be used against you. In about 20 years I expect a metric shit-ton of blackmail material will be available for our future up-and-coming politicians. (Thank you MySpace for embarrassing our future politicians!)
Of course, because I'm smart enough to keep private matters private, I'm automatically disqualified from politics. (Yay!)
Hint: No matter how awesome that frat party was (I don't care *how* crazy those midgets where!), it's probably not a good idea to post those pics until your hangover is gone.
Does anyone know exactly what problems Red Hat has with the new Java license? How can Debian, Debian(!) of all distros, support it and not Red Hat?
My point is that I fondly remember those old Final Fantasies because they had great stories.
Of course I would rather have all new stories and be blown away by Final Fantasy again, I just don't think Square has the ability to write awe-inpiring plots anymore.
Just wanted to state...
Some buddies of mine were chilling around watching Advent Children the other day. We were lamenting about how Final Fantasy VII blew our minds early on in the game, and kept blowing our minds up until the end. That game instilled a sense of *wonder*, and many late nights were spent just wanting to play a little bit more to find out what the hell was going to happen next! The game before that, Final Fantasy III (or VI for you purists), had a great plot line as well.
However, every single Final Fantasy since then has been good, but *not* the awe-inspiring series we remember. Even the Final Fantasy movies were more about being pretty than about the actual story. The last Final Fantasy I played through was Final Fantasy X, and I always had a feeling that Square was more focused on kick ass cutscenes than having a kick ass story. ='(
Here's my wish list:
I want *great* things for Final Fantasy, I really do. But it just seems it is past it's prime. It's become a money maker for an already rich Square rather than the epic story they used to make when they were a smaller company and closer to bankruptcy.
Uh oh... Someone find three (two?) time-travelling uber-dweeby dweebs, a crowbar, and some fake vomit immediately!
Strange how this coincides with the theory of "Cosmic cycles" in Hinduism and other Vedic religions like Buddhism
It's not strange at all. With many different religions and each religion having many different sects, how scientists describe how our universe works will seem similar to some religion somewhere.
If you think about it, religion is one way for people to describe what is happening in the world around them.
Personally, I say keep your faith and your science seperate.
Just to add, I have an Army friend in Iraq who tries to play WoW. While local LAN games are popular, he states that he has so much trouble with WoW (especially the Battlegrounds) because of his 8000 second ping. Yes, it would be excruciating to wait 8 seconds for Blizzard's servers to receive your command and then have to wait another 8 seconds to see the result back on your screen.
There are some good days where he gets only a 4000 or 3000 (*Woot!*) ping, but WoW is pretty much unplayable for anything except low level soloing.
And that's insecure? Your run-of-the-mill car can be broken into in about 20 seconds. How'd I know? I managed to leave my keys in my car and called AAA. The guy showed up and had it open in under 20 seconds, just using a coathanger.
From that POV, give me the fancy-pants stuff any time.
The triple A guy would not have been able to do that with these expensive luxury cars. And the 20 minutes the car jackers spend trying to wirelessly crack the car's computer are not spent right next to the car. The thiefs can do it from the safety of their own car while listening to the radio. Once their laptop has cracked the target car's code, they can just walk up, unlock the target car, and drive away.
From that POV, the theif can get a much more expensive car for a lot less risk.My recent experience with Linux (Ubuntu exactly) went like this.
I know that I will become more familiar with Linux over time and figure out how to troubleshoot the proper docs. But my wished for Linux right now:
Has anybody thought to add a feature to firefox (or maybe an extension) whereby if a user misspells a domain name, it gives the option to correct the spelling?
Just do it as an extension. I don't need that in the brower itself!
c) our ability to produce data far outstrips our ability and/or willingness to analzye it
Wouldn't that be the same as b) it doesn't work?
Swearing is in my opinion best reserved to expressing extreme emotions. The more they are used the more diluted they become.
As far as I can tell, this is just how our language is evolving. I'm not saying it's a good thing, but hear me out.
There are a lot of words that used to be very very bad but are now seen on TV every day. Ass, asshole, bitch, God damn it, pussy, and even shit and nigger are words that are appearing on TV more and more often. My generation doesn't even see anything wrong with saying, "Damn it!" anymore. "Fuck" is even being used more and more often. You may not agree, but it's a very descriptive word. However, I do agree that it is losing it's impact.
All this means though is that new curses will be created. Stuff like cock gobbler, cuntbag, etc...
I don't know if this means our language is now spiraling downward to vulgarity or if this is just how our language progresses. That is up to your to decide.
That would be more accurate, as the truth is that even according to the original NY Times article, this is what the wiretaps were used for. In seems that has graduated to "domestic wiretapping" for the NY Times, Clinto News Network (CNN), etc. It does not represent reality.
Any time an American citizen is wiretapped, it doesn't matter who is on the other end of the line, it is "domestic wiretapping".
Apple Hackers: 1
Linux Hackers: 2
Windows Hackers: 134,443,229
BSD Hackers: 0
What you also need to remember that in the case of all those examples, government and private entities did a lot, and still do a lot, to prevent these problems from becoming huge problems.
This is similar to the whole Y2K bug. There may have been huge problems. There were huge problems. No one noticed though because billions of dollars were spent to fix them.
SARS may have been a huge problem, but there was a worldwide response to that disease as soon as it appeared.