Present them with a contract for them to sign guaranteeing you a minimum of 3, 6, 12 or whatever months of employment post signing. Then if they fire you within that given time period, its breach of contract (probably among other things).
This doesn't mean you have to *stay* for that period - its just them guaranteeing that the synergy won't get you:)
Thus, you would be given time update your resumé (and possibly print it out on the company printer).
5GB? Geez, that starts to look like the pathetic data caps of all the ISPs in New Zealand. No wonder I don't live in NZ or the USA!
Europeans (especially Scandinavia and France) and certain Asian countries (Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong that I can think of) laugh at your woeful bandwidth!
"Internet Exploder" doesn't come with Windows. "Internet Explorer" does. Not the difference in spelling.
"Internet Exploder" is a Chinese web-browser - a parody if you will - that seemed to be essentially IE5/IE6 with a few extra features. I haven't seen it in a few years, but my work has also taken me away from the Chinese-speaking market.
Then again, it could also have been a hack that some clever folks decided to integrate in to the Chinese VUL version of Windows that tended to float around that market (and that, my friends, is why we spent so much time removing virus' from - mostly Chinese - computers all those years ago)
Oddly enough, the first Google result from where I'm currently sitting (Japan), is
Internet Explorer: Get It Now Download Internet Explorer 7 and get the benefits of tabbed browsing and improved printing, search, and security. www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/getitnow.mspx - 71k -
Why doesn't Novell just buy up SCO for pennies on the dollar and get it over with?
I'm sure by the time you subtract what SCO already owes Novell, they could probably get away with the acquisition very cheaply (as far as acquisitions of publicly listed companies are concerned): 1. Spend a 5-10 million on buying up whatever assets SCO claims to own OR 2. Spend a 5-10 million on a beowulf cluster of lawyers for the next X years.
While it may not be a good acquisition per sé, it would save Novell (and as a result, probably IBM and others) a bunch of time and money and might even contain the spread of FUD against Linux - excepting, of course, the FUD from that insignificant little company... Micro-something, I think its called...
-Out of Office Autoreplies -Autoresponders set up for email addresses that (for one reason or another) begin to get lots of Nigerian 419 scams - particularly ones that end up on venture capital and similar forums...
My standard "I'm not interested in your 419 scam" email is:
Please note: THIS IS AN AUTOMATED RESPONSE - THERE IS NO RESPONSE REQUIRED ON YOUR PART. YOUR MESSAGE HAS BEEN AUTOMATICALLY DISCARDED, SO AS TO NOT WASTE TIME ON SIFTING THROUGH SCAMS AND OTHER IRRELEVANT CORRESPONDENCE.
THIS AUTOMATED EMAIL DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OF A BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH [My Company] OR ITS SUBSIDIARIES. IF WE FIND YOUR EMAIL SUITABLE TO OUR BUSINESS, WE WILL RESPOND TO IT PERSONALLY.
[My Company] wishes to apologize for this inconvenience, but we believe that this response is for the eventual benefit of both parties. We are still interested to hear from genuine investors, and would like to advise that genuine investors can contact us through one of the phone numbers on our website.
********** Furthermore, please note that if your offer, investment opportunity, business venture or proposed partnership involves [My Company] or its staff having to send money via Western Union, Money Gram or some unsecured method of money transfer at any point in the proceedings of this transaction, please note that it is against personal and company policy, and we will not fulfill such a request under any circumstances.
We are obligated to stay in business and not lose thousands of dollars of personal nor company money, and we have no intentions of jeopardizing ourselves by fulfilling such a request. Such transactions are simply not possible, and we will not honour this request due to the likelihood of this signifying the well known "419" (or other illegal) scam, which we have no intention of taking part in. **********
Regards [My Name] [My Company]
Genuine people then are able to visit the website and call me.
Occasionally, but not very often, I will get an email via my contact form or a phone call from a scammer who is very obviously not from where he says he is, to which it's easiest to respond with something like "I travel, mate - I can tell the difference in accent between a true Englishman and a West African, you're not fooling anybody. Go get some accent training and try again!" and if they call back, which sometimes happens, I like to either yell at them or just leave the phone on the desk as they sit there for several minutes saying "Hello, hello, hello":)
Fun and games. The only thing I hate is when I get the call at 3am - that pisses me off. Usually it's because I'm in another timezone other than the one I live in, but when I'm at home and I get a call at 3am, boy do they get a mouthful!...I should learn to turn off my phone at night...
By the way, is there any way that anyone thinks I can improve on this auto-reply?
Did anyone else notice the little "BETA" tag in the logo/image? Not just on Video, but the site itself. WHY? All websites are in beta now, whether they need to be or not - this is a relatively "simple" website with some content streaming, not a big RIA.
I find myself saving in.ODF for documents within the company, and for anyone outside of the company who needs to read them (that is, people who don't use OpenOffice), I export to.PDF
I don't think I've had MS word for about... 3 or 4 years. About a week ago found myself in a small pickle whereby someone needed to create charts with my data (which I was using Calc 2.2 to create), but it didn't work out so well... after sending him the file in.xls format he got the chart he wanted in Excel 2003.
That said, I have since installed OO.o 2.3, and I think the charting is much improved now, but I haven't had the chance to check if this other user could benefit... he said "your version of excel looks really old". Perhaps the OO.o UI team needs to get cracking on some UI improvements.
I never thought I would say such a thing, but admittedly, if I had to choose based solely on interface (and nothing else), I might consider going with MS Office.
Yes. Many proprietary software packages use RTF in some way, shape or form: a Medical Software package I use to maintain and support had an API of some sort (I can't remember which one) which was subsequently embedded in to the code that was being written.
It was used instead of.txt or some other format so that the users could format different areas of the text (prescriptions, invoices etc) with pretty sizes and occasionally even colours. It was buggy and slightly bloated, but most of the time it seemed to work.
Uhhhhhhhhh... sorry, but Mercedes Benz (definately S-Class, not sure about other classes, definitely in Japan and Europe, and almost certainly in models from 2001 and later) have had this sort of stuff for a few years now.
Normally in the center of the dash there is a DVD Player/TV/Navigation/Control System, which flicks to the reverse cameras when you shift in to reverse.
In addition, you can see a fairly wide angle view, including a couple of meters out either side, both above and below the bumper. Additionally it has moving guide lines to show where you will be going based on which way the steering wheel is turned.
This is nothing new, but it's cool that this is being introduced in to "normal" cars.
Thats a load of &%#. You seem to forget that much of Japan is not only horrible terrain, volcanic, earthquake prone and so on.
In addition, it (decent connectivity) is all very good and well if you are one of the 20 million or so that live in Tokyo or the metropolitan area, but sucks if you are one of the 115 million that don't - or worse if you live in a rural area on Shikoku Island, like I am doing until December.
In fact, the factory that I am currently supposed to be equipping with an internet-based system can only MAYBE get ISDN. In a town of about 150,000 people (Saijo City, for those interested).
Other major cities are better, but not as good as Tokyo. South Korea - now there is a wired country! My colleagues in SK reckon that their factories get wired no problem.
Broadband in this area of Japan is still a bit better than the "Broadband" in New Zealand (where I used to live), so really it's not so bad when I think about it that way. But nowhere near as good as France, Sweden, Norway or Finland (where I normally live)...
...and then your filtering solutions (SpamGourmet, Filtering by unique email address at the server etc) would be the next step. I used to use Mailwasher (mailwasher.net) but I got lazy, so now I just use Thunderbird and filtering at the server.
Recent culprit email addresses that have been in some way compromised include the email addresses I used for TechRepublic and the osCommerce forums, so now I block the old email addresses, and I updated the addresses at TR and osC, so we will see if that helps. But I get almost no spam.
My corporate email address is (was) a bit harder: I don't do the aliasing so much (for example staff at banks have looked at me weird when I give them [theirbankname]@[mydomain].com, but I just explain the spam thing and they understand usually), but once I put the word out for investments on some entrepeneurs forum, and for months have gotten nothing but 419 scams to that email address....So then I used Thunderbird filters to send a reply saying something to the effect of "Due to the volume of Nigerian 419 scams received to this email address, your email has been deleted. If you are a genuine investor, please visit our website and phone us". For a while, I had it set up wrong (it was replying from my normal email address, rather than the one used at the forum), but now its set up to reply properly, and I've curbed the amount of spam significantly (to a couple a day). Now to completely eradicate the scourge!
BY the way, a common thing for Finnish companies on their websites is to, for example, on the contact page, put the name(s) of any relevant people to be contacted, and then tell people that the email address to contact these people should be in the form of "etunimi.sukunimi@toimi.fi" (firstname.lastname@company.fi) or whatever.
Spam-bots will pick up the email address and spam a non-existent (almost like a decoy) address, and most people are apt enough to just find the name of the person they want to contact and compose an email to that.person@thecompany.fi
Works for smaller companies very well, I think... which is the majority here, but it might be a method for some individuals if you have to publish your email address somewhere.
One thing thats bad about the USA: Frivolous Litigation. If there is one thing good about the USA: Frivolous Litigation. Ok, well, its not necessarily good, and whatever I had lined up for the "good" aspect left my head shortly before it made it to my fingers to be typed.
Anyway, a less technical solution: Scour the Ameritrade site for Privacy Policies, SPAM Policies and tick-boxes which say "we will not divulge or sell your email address" etc. If they exist: class action (for negligence or false advertising or something). Throwaway/unique addresses make it easy to prove that Ameritrade is somehow at fault here.
I know, I know... I'm usually the first guy to say how moronic the system in "the States" is with said litigation being so frivolous and all, but there are some times when such things can be used for the purpose for which they were intended, and which may not be considered frivolous (as opposed to suing McDonalds because their burgers are making you too fat and so on.)
Anyway, if the "usual" policies don't exist... well... who in their right mind would sign up for a service like that (especially one that deals with your money) where there is no such privacy policy?
I've got a few more words: Give this kid a hobby or something better to do!
Hells bells, at 6807/month, thats a bit over 226/day (30 day/month). Assuming she sleeps circa 8 hours a day, that comes to a bit over 15 an hour, which is approximately 1 every 4 minutes.
I'm betting that half of those messages were less than 10 words, and therefore a hell of a waste! Myself, I usually try and use as many of the 160 available characters as possible, otherwise, its probably not worth the message.
My plan allows me 100 per month or 3 a day, but it costs me 2. I could treble that amount for an extra 3, if I wanted, but I don't reckon I would use them. I have 500 minutes a month as well, which costs me 18 - all that is enough for me, I think.
I guess I have better things to do than yabber away on the phone, like, oh, I don't know... work (I have a business to run!) and interact with people... that kind of thing. That said, even when I am interacting with people, I don't say much. Maybe thats my difference.
But at least this girl and anyone who can sent 1000 text messages a month could at least be given some bloody homework or something else to do? Maybe something that will help her appreciate the value of a dollar... and if she keeps sending a text message every 4 minutes, how she might not have any in her adult life. Myself, I would have to be REALLY bored to be sending even more than 10 messages a day.
Of course, I have a Bluetooth headset, so I'm no longer burdened with the annoyance of having to actually hold the phone. I think the only time I talk on the phone AND do something else is when I'm doing the grocery shopping, even then its usually with my docking st...err significant other.
More interestingly, whats the point of providing in-flight WiFi if many airlines are not-allowing (at least some brands of) laptops on-board?
"Good Afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen, this is senior flight attendant Jane Doe here, and we'd like to welcome you aboard this 32-hour non-stop flight from London to Auckland.
Among the many comforts we are offering to our passengers on this cross-planet flight, WiFi is available in all areas of the Aircraft, however if you own a laptop manufactured by Dell, HP, Apple, IBM/Lenovo or any other manufacturer, we ask that you please don't turn it on, just in case the battery catches fire.
If you do have a device capable of using WiFi, we don't know how to configure it. If you aren't a geek, there is probably one in your row - ask him/her.
Please remember there is no smoking aboard this flight, no standing in the aisles and the in-flight movie is Biodome with Pauly Shore.
Due to some technical difficulties, the gaming system doesn't work correctly, and you can't switch the movie or radio channel. If you would still like to listen to something, headphones are $50.
We would like to remind passengers that they should keep your seat-belt fastened at all times, and for your own safety, don't turn towards the fat guy next to you unless you want to get your nose stuck in his arse-crack, and if you need to go to the bathroom, please hold it in instead of asking him to get out of his seat because that will shift the balance of the plane.
The drink-cart will be coming down the aisle shortly after takeoff, and once again shortly before we land. If you happen to have an aisle seat, please ensure you keep your arms and legs confined to your seat space at all times.
If you have any questions or needs, don't ask us because we really don't give a damn, and we just want to sit up the front and relax during our free intercontinental flight, like you would like to if you only had as much leg room as we have.
From myself and the rest of the cabin crew, we would like to thank you for flying Shaft-U Airways and hope you have a pleasant flight."
(OK, that was a bit longer than I expected to write, and a bit of a lie - I've never had *THAT* horrible service on any flights in the past few years, even with some of the cutbacks some airlines are making, but then again, I tend to fly only 4 and 5-star airlines, such as Emirates, Cathay, Gulf and Singapore... and sometimes Finnair. Then again, I've never flown any of the US-based Airlines).
I'm not necessarily an expert on the English language, but I tend to not bastardize it as Americans are often said to do (They even call this newfangled language "American" - before you know it someone will produce an American-English dictionary.)
In any case, I didn't think the Anglo-Saxons adopted the Old-french "Mathématique", since I've never seen the word "mathematic" used as a noun in English. Adjective, certainly, and even then it's listed as a variant to "Mathematical".
The nearest word I can find in Websters is "Mathematical" and the noun-plural form we are discussing "Mathematics".
Main Entry: mathematical
Pronunciation: "math-'ma-ti-k&l, "ma-th&-
Variant(s): also mathematic/-tik/
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English mathematicalle, from Latin mathematicus, from Greek mathEmatikos, from mathEmat-, mathEma learning, mathematics, from manthanein to learn; probably akin to Gothic mundon to pay attention
1 : of, relating to, or according with mathematics
2 a : rigorously exact : PRECISE b : CERTAIN
3 : possible but highly improbable
- mathematically/-ti-k(&-)lE/ adverb
Conclusion: The name of the subject is Mathematic*s*; shortened to Math*s*. We win. Boo-yah.
As someone who uses any of at least 7 different User Interfaces on a regular basis (DOS command line, Windows, Mac OS (and Terminal), KDE, Gnome, BASH and Mezzo, from SymphonyOS). Each is suited for different types of people, and others are good simply for their familiarity. Personally, I have no preference anymore - and I like different interfaces for different conveniences offered.
In particular I do like the convenience that Mezzo offers me with my most commonly used programs, recent documents, folders, RSS feeds etc right there on the desktop, (No Applications Menu, K Menu, Start Menu). The four corners directly linking to things like Trash, My Computer, Applications and My Documents is kinda handy, though.
In saying that, it's not for everyone. I think its use is best when you *are* only using a limited range of applications - it would be great for the grandmothers who would use Firefox, Open Office and whatever else Grandmas use these days:)
Remember, FSF/GNU and the philosophies behind the respecting communities are all about freedom of choice! Use what you feel comfortable with and don't mock others for thinking differently - otherwise you might be comparable to those annoying people that come to your doorstep asking you to change religion.
I'd rather just use what I want to use and get on with using my computer, rather than having someone push a particular UI on to me. this is one of the reasons why I like Linux in the first place (and to a lesser extent Mac OS were I to install X and my chosen UI).
Hrm. I seem to vaguely remember my mum telling a story to someone when I was a kid (I grew up in New Zealand), about how during the winter our power company would call us and ask why we had turned off our water-heater.
Obviously it was a significant and obvious enough drop that they knew which device it was.
Her answer: None of your F%&*$n business. *CLICK*
Correct answer: We had an awesome wood-stove built in to our 1930s-era house (located on a farm) which heated both the water and most of the house. The thing would be on anyway, so why not use it to heat *both* the water AND the room(s)?
I can't *yet* find information on their website (www.neuf.fr), but my French is iffy, so it might be that. I'll try again tomorrow morning.
Neuf offer a 20Mbit service, including Cheap/Free calls internationally, Cable TV etc for 29.90 per month. Free (www.free.fr) also offers a similar connection, but IMHO the quality of service (at least in Nice) is not as good as Neuf.
Where I work, we have a Neuf line already (DSL only, I think) and two Free lines (Free has a similar box, providing TV/Internet services). We are switching one of our Free lines to Neuf because our traffic demands are increasing...
When I got there, the rack was messy. I said "I think we should clean up that rack"... Management says "Ok do it over the weekend" (Job was on Salary - No overtime)
Other people in the office started complaining about the messy rack - clients coming in and seeing the "core of our network", plus it was just unsightly (and in plain view).
Management solution: add a "door" over the weekend to cover it up (And not even a nice door). I come in Monday morning to be faced by... "Oh dear."
Slashdot Mirror
You mean a bit like Bumptop (http://bumptop.com/), but in a browser?
Seriously. I'm beginning to thing that all my former cow-irkers are taking over Slashdot.
Did we work for the same company? This situation sounds very familiar.
Don't want to be laid off?
:)
Present them with a contract for them to sign guaranteeing you a minimum of 3, 6, 12 or whatever months of employment post signing. Then if they fire you within that given time period, its breach of contract (probably among other things).
This doesn't mean you have to *stay* for that period - its just them guaranteeing that the synergy won't get you
Thus, you would be given time update your resumé (and possibly print it out on the company printer).
5GB? Geez, that starts to look like the pathetic data caps of all the ISPs in New Zealand. No wonder I don't live in NZ or the USA!
Europeans (especially Scandinavia and France) and certain Asian countries (Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong that I can think of) laugh at your woeful bandwidth!
"Internet Exploder" doesn't come with Windows. "Internet Explorer" does. Not the difference in spelling.
"Internet Exploder" is a Chinese web-browser - a parody if you will - that seemed to be essentially IE5/IE6 with a few extra features. I haven't seen it in a few years, but my work has also taken me away from the Chinese-speaking market.
Then again, it could also have been a hack that some clever folks decided to integrate in to the Chinese VUL version of Windows that tended to float around that market (and that, my friends, is why we spent so much time removing virus' from - mostly Chinese - computers all those years ago)
Oddly enough, the first Google result from where I'm currently sitting (Japan), is
Internet Explorer: Get It Now
Download Internet Explorer 7 and get the benefits of tabbed browsing and improved printing, search, and security.
www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/getitnow.mspx - 71k -
Why doesn't Novell just buy up SCO for pennies on the dollar and get it over with?
I'm sure by the time you subtract what SCO already owes Novell, they could probably get away with the acquisition very cheaply (as far as acquisitions of publicly listed companies are concerned):
1. Spend a 5-10 million on buying up whatever assets SCO claims to own OR
2. Spend a 5-10 million on a beowulf cluster of lawyers for the next X years.
While it may not be a good acquisition per sé, it would save Novell (and as a result, probably IBM and others) a bunch of time and money and might even contain the spread of FUD against Linux - excepting, of course, the FUD from that insignificant little company... Micro-something, I think its called...
I have a similar line in my:
:)
...I should learn to turn off my phone at night...
-Out of Office Autoreplies
-Autoresponders set up for email addresses that (for one reason or another) begin to get lots of Nigerian 419 scams - particularly ones that end up on venture capital and similar forums...
My standard "I'm not interested in your 419 scam" email is:
Please note: THIS IS AN AUTOMATED RESPONSE - THERE IS NO RESPONSE REQUIRED ON YOUR PART. YOUR MESSAGE HAS BEEN AUTOMATICALLY DISCARDED, SO AS TO NOT WASTE TIME ON SIFTING THROUGH SCAMS AND OTHER IRRELEVANT CORRESPONDENCE.
THIS AUTOMATED EMAIL DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OF A BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH [My Company] OR ITS SUBSIDIARIES. IF WE FIND YOUR EMAIL SUITABLE TO OUR BUSINESS, WE WILL RESPOND TO IT PERSONALLY.
[My Company] wishes to apologize for this inconvenience, but we believe that this response is for the eventual benefit of both parties. We are still interested to hear from genuine investors, and would like to advise that genuine investors can contact us through one of the phone numbers on our website.
**********
Furthermore, please note that if your offer, investment opportunity, business venture or proposed partnership involves [My Company] or its staff having to send money via Western Union, Money Gram or some unsecured method of money transfer at any point in the proceedings of this transaction, please note that it is against personal and company policy, and we will not fulfill such a request under any circumstances.
We are obligated to stay in business and not lose thousands of dollars of personal nor company money, and we have no intentions of jeopardizing ourselves by fulfilling such a request. Such transactions are simply not possible, and we will not honour this request due to the likelihood of this signifying the well known "419" (or other illegal) scam, which we have no intention of taking part in.
**********
Regards
[My Name]
[My Company]
Genuine people then are able to visit the website and call me.
Occasionally, but not very often, I will get an email via my contact form or a phone call from a scammer who is very obviously not from where he says he is, to which it's easiest to respond with something like "I travel, mate - I can tell the difference in accent between a true Englishman and a West African, you're not fooling anybody. Go get some accent training and try again!" and if they call back, which sometimes happens, I like to either yell at them or just leave the phone on the desk as they sit there for several minutes saying "Hello, hello, hello"
Fun and games. The only thing I hate is when I get the call at 3am - that pisses me off. Usually it's because I'm in another timezone other than the one I live in, but when I'm at home and I get a call at 3am, boy do they get a mouthful!
By the way, is there any way that anyone thinks I can improve on this auto-reply?
Did anyone else notice the little "BETA" tag in the logo/image? Not just on Video, but the site itself. WHY? All websites are in beta now, whether they need to be or not - this is a relatively "simple" website with some content streaming, not a big RIA.
I find myself saving in .ODF for documents within the company, and for anyone outside of the company who needs to read them (that is, people who don't use OpenOffice), I export to .PDF
.xls format he got the chart he wanted in Excel 2003.
I don't think I've had MS word for about... 3 or 4 years. About a week ago found myself in a small pickle whereby someone needed to create charts with my data (which I was using Calc 2.2 to create), but it didn't work out so well... after sending him the file in
That said, I have since installed OO.o 2.3, and I think the charting is much improved now, but I haven't had the chance to check if this other user could benefit... he said "your version of excel looks really old". Perhaps the OO.o UI team needs to get cracking on some UI improvements.
I never thought I would say such a thing, but admittedly, if I had to choose based solely on interface (and nothing else), I might consider going with MS Office.
Yes. Many proprietary software packages use RTF in some way, shape or form: a Medical Software package I use to maintain and support had an API of some sort (I can't remember which one) which was subsequently embedded in to the code that was being written.
.txt or some other format so that the users could format different areas of the text (prescriptions, invoices etc) with pretty sizes and occasionally even colours. It was buggy and slightly bloated, but most of the time it seemed to work.
It was used instead of
Uhhhhhhhhh... sorry, but Mercedes Benz (definately S-Class, not sure about other classes, definitely in Japan and Europe, and almost certainly in models from 2001 and later) have had this sort of stuff for a few years now.
Normally in the center of the dash there is a DVD Player/TV/Navigation/Control System, which flicks to the reverse cameras when you shift in to reverse.
In addition, you can see a fairly wide angle view, including a couple of meters out either side, both above and below the bumper. Additionally it has moving guide lines to show where you will be going based on which way the steering wheel is turned.
This is nothing new, but it's cool that this is being introduced in to "normal" cars.
Thats a load of &%#. You seem to forget that much of Japan is not only horrible terrain, volcanic, earthquake prone and so on.
In addition, it (decent connectivity) is all very good and well if you are one of the 20 million or so that live in Tokyo or the metropolitan area, but sucks if you are one of the 115 million that don't - or worse if you live in a rural area on Shikoku Island, like I am doing until December.
In fact, the factory that I am currently supposed to be equipping with an internet-based system can only MAYBE get ISDN. In a town of about 150,000 people (Saijo City, for those interested).
Other major cities are better, but not as good as Tokyo. South Korea - now there is a wired country! My colleagues in SK reckon that their factories get wired no problem.
Broadband in this area of Japan is still a bit better than the "Broadband" in New Zealand (where I used to live), so really it's not so bad when I think about it that way. But nowhere near as good as France, Sweden, Norway or Finland (where I normally live)...
Either way, I want one. I can see some uses for it.
...and then your filtering solutions (SpamGourmet, Filtering by unique email address at the server etc) would be the next step. I used to use Mailwasher (mailwasher.net) but I got lazy, so now I just use Thunderbird and filtering at the server.
...So then I used Thunderbird filters to send a reply saying something to the effect of "Due to the volume of Nigerian 419 scams received to this email address, your email has been deleted. If you are a genuine investor, please visit our website and phone us". For a while, I had it set up wrong (it was replying from my normal email address, rather than the one used at the forum), but now its set up to reply properly, and I've curbed the amount of spam significantly (to a couple a day). Now to completely eradicate the scourge!
Recent culprit email addresses that have been in some way compromised include the email addresses I used for TechRepublic and the osCommerce forums, so now I block the old email addresses, and I updated the addresses at TR and osC, so we will see if that helps. But I get almost no spam.
My corporate email address is (was) a bit harder: I don't do the aliasing so much (for example staff at banks have looked at me weird when I give them [theirbankname]@[mydomain].com, but I just explain the spam thing and they understand usually), but once I put the word out for investments on some entrepeneurs forum, and for months have gotten nothing but 419 scams to that email address.
BY the way, a common thing for Finnish companies on their websites is to, for example, on the contact page, put the name(s) of any relevant people to be contacted, and then tell people that the email address to contact these people should be in the form of "etunimi.sukunimi@toimi.fi" (firstname.lastname@company.fi) or whatever.
Spam-bots will pick up the email address and spam a non-existent (almost like a decoy) address, and most people are apt enough to just find the name of the person they want to contact and compose an email to that.person@thecompany.fi
Works for smaller companies very well, I think... which is the majority here, but it might be a method for some individuals if you have to publish your email address somewhere.
Mathew
One thing thats bad about the USA: Frivolous Litigation. If there is one thing good about the USA: Frivolous Litigation. Ok, well, its not necessarily good, and whatever I had lined up for the "good" aspect left my head shortly before it made it to my fingers to be typed.
Anyway, a less technical solution: Scour the Ameritrade site for Privacy Policies, SPAM Policies and tick-boxes which say "we will not divulge or sell your email address" etc. If they exist: class action (for negligence or false advertising or something). Throwaway/unique addresses make it easy to prove that Ameritrade is somehow at fault here.
I know, I know... I'm usually the first guy to say how moronic the system in "the States" is with said litigation being so frivolous and all, but there are some times when such things can be used for the purpose for which they were intended, and which may not be considered frivolous (as opposed to suing McDonalds because their burgers are making you too fat and so on.)
Anyway, if the "usual" policies don't exist... well... who in their right mind would sign up for a service like that (especially one that deals with your money) where there is no such privacy policy?
I've got a few more words: Give this kid a hobby or something better to do!
Hells bells, at 6807/month, thats a bit over 226/day (30 day/month). Assuming she sleeps circa 8 hours a day, that comes to a bit over 15 an hour, which is approximately 1 every 4 minutes.
I'm betting that half of those messages were less than 10 words, and therefore a hell of a waste! Myself, I usually try and use as many of the 160 available characters as possible, otherwise, its probably not worth the message.
My plan allows me 100 per month or 3 a day, but it costs me 2. I could treble that amount for an extra 3, if I wanted, but I don't reckon I would use them. I have 500 minutes a month as well, which costs me 18 - all that is enough for me, I think.
I guess I have better things to do than yabber away on the phone, like, oh, I don't know... work (I have a business to run!) and interact with people... that kind of thing. That said, even when I am interacting with people, I don't say much. Maybe thats my difference.
But at least this girl and anyone who can sent 1000 text messages a month could at least be given some bloody homework or something else to do? Maybe something that will help her appreciate the value of a dollar... and if she keeps sending a text message every 4 minutes, how she might not have any in her adult life. Myself, I would have to be REALLY bored to be sending even more than 10 messages a day.
Of course, I have a Bluetooth headset, so I'm no longer burdened with the annoyance of having to actually hold the phone. I think the only time I talk on the phone AND do something else is when I'm doing the grocery shopping, even then its usually with my docking st...err significant other.
More interestingly, whats the point of providing in-flight WiFi if many airlines are not-allowing (at least some brands of) laptops on-board?
"Good Afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen, this is senior flight attendant Jane Doe here, and we'd like to welcome you aboard this 32-hour non-stop flight from London to Auckland.
Among the many comforts we are offering to our passengers on this cross-planet flight, WiFi is available in all areas of the Aircraft, however if you own a laptop manufactured by Dell, HP, Apple, IBM/Lenovo or any other manufacturer, we ask that you please don't turn it on, just in case the battery catches fire.
If you do have a device capable of using WiFi, we don't know how to configure it. If you aren't a geek, there is probably one in your row - ask him/her.
Please remember there is no smoking aboard this flight, no standing in the aisles and the in-flight movie is Biodome with Pauly Shore.
Due to some technical difficulties, the gaming system doesn't work correctly, and you can't switch the movie or radio channel. If you would still like to listen to something, headphones are $50.
We would like to remind passengers that they should keep your seat-belt fastened at all times, and for your own safety, don't turn towards the fat guy next to you unless you want to get your nose stuck in his arse-crack, and if you need to go to the bathroom, please hold it in instead of asking him to get out of his seat because that will shift the balance of the plane.
The drink-cart will be coming down the aisle shortly after takeoff, and once again shortly before we land. If you happen to have an aisle seat, please ensure you keep your arms and legs confined to your seat space at all times.
If you have any questions or needs, don't ask us because we really don't give a damn, and we just want to sit up the front and relax during our free intercontinental flight, like you would like to if you only had as much leg room as we have.
From myself and the rest of the cabin crew, we would like to thank you for flying Shaft-U Airways and hope you have a pleasant flight."
(OK, that was a bit longer than I expected to write, and a bit of a lie - I've never had *THAT* horrible service on any flights in the past few years, even with some of the cutbacks some airlines are making, but then again, I tend to fly only 4 and 5-star airlines, such as Emirates, Cathay, Gulf and Singapore... and sometimes Finnair. Then again, I've never flown any of the US-based Airlines).
I'm not necessarily an expert on the English language, but I tend to not bastardize it as Americans are often said to do (They even call this newfangled language "American" - before you know it someone will produce an American-English dictionary.)
In any case, I didn't think the Anglo-Saxons adopted the Old-french "Mathématique", since I've never seen the word "mathematic" used as a noun in English. Adjective, certainly, and even then it's listed as a variant to "Mathematical".
The nearest word I can find in Websters is "Mathematical" and the noun-plural form we are discussing "Mathematics".
Copy and paste from http://www.webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?sourceid =Mozilla-search&va=mathematic
Main Entry: mathematical /-tik/ /-ti-k(&-)lE/ adverb
Pronunciation: "math-'ma-ti-k&l, "ma-th&-
Variant(s): also mathematic
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English mathematicalle, from Latin mathematicus, from Greek mathEmatikos, from mathEmat-, mathEma learning, mathematics, from manthanein to learn; probably akin to Gothic mundon to pay attention
1 : of, relating to, or according with mathematics
2 a : rigorously exact : PRECISE b : CERTAIN
3 : possible but highly improbable
- mathematically
Conclusion: The name of the subject is Mathematic*s*; shortened to Math*s*. We win. Boo-yah.
As someone who uses any of at least 7 different User Interfaces on a regular basis (DOS command line, Windows, Mac OS (and Terminal), KDE, Gnome, BASH and Mezzo, from SymphonyOS). Each is suited for different types of people, and others are good simply for their familiarity. Personally, I have no preference anymore - and I like different interfaces for different conveniences offered.
:)
In particular I do like the convenience that Mezzo offers me with my most commonly used programs, recent documents, folders, RSS feeds etc right there on the desktop, (No Applications Menu, K Menu, Start Menu). The four corners directly linking to things like Trash, My Computer, Applications and My Documents is kinda handy, though.
In saying that, it's not for everyone. I think its use is best when you *are* only using a limited range of applications - it would be great for the grandmothers who would use Firefox, Open Office and whatever else Grandmas use these days
Remember, FSF/GNU and the philosophies behind the respecting communities are all about freedom of choice! Use what you feel comfortable with and don't mock others for thinking differently - otherwise you might be comparable to those annoying people that come to your doorstep asking you to change religion.
I'd rather just use what I want to use and get on with using my computer, rather than having someone push a particular UI on to me. this is one of the reasons why I like Linux in the first place (and to a lesser extent Mac OS were I to install X and my chosen UI).
Hrm. I seem to vaguely remember my mum telling a story to someone when I was a kid (I grew up in New Zealand), about how during the winter our power company would call us and ask why we had turned off our water-heater.
Obviously it was a significant and obvious enough drop that they knew which device it was.
Her answer: None of your F%&*$n business. *CLICK*
Correct answer: We had an awesome wood-stove built in to our 1930s-era house (located on a farm) which heated both the water and most of the house. The thing would be on anyway, so why not use it to heat *both* the water AND the room(s)?
Just a pity the broadband offerings are so S@#tty! (For example: http://www.telecom.co.nz/chm/0,8763,203071-202449, 00.html)
Yes, that is what I am saying. AOL surrendered to the French. Shock, horror!
e asyneuf-internet.htm
FYI, here is some more info about it (in French): http://www.pcinpact.com/actu/news/31549-easygate-
Actually it is N9uf (Neuf) Telecom, not AOL that is offering this. All that has happened is that N9uf has acquired the France division of AOL. http://www.groupeneufcegetel.fr/html/Presse/Neuf_C egetel_conclut_un_accord_en_vue_de_racheter_le_Fou rnisseur_d_Acces_Internet_AOL_France_a_Time_Warner _pour_288_millions_d_Euros.html
I can't *yet* find information on their website (www.neuf.fr), but my French is iffy, so it might be that. I'll try again tomorrow morning.
Neuf offer a 20Mbit service, including Cheap/Free calls internationally, Cable TV etc for 29.90 per month. Free (www.free.fr) also offers a similar connection, but IMHO the quality of service (at least in Nice) is not as good as Neuf.
Where I work, we have a Neuf line already (DSL only, I think) and two Free lines (Free has a similar box, providing TV/Internet services). We are switching one of our Free lines to Neuf because our traffic demands are increasing...
Yeah we had something like that where I worked.
When I got there, the rack was messy. I said "I think we should clean up that rack"... Management says "Ok do it over the weekend" (Job was on Salary - No overtime)
Other people in the office started complaining about the messy rack - clients coming in and seeing the "core of our network", plus it was just unsightly (and in plain view).
Management solution: add a "door" over the weekend to cover it up (And not even a nice door). I come in Monday morning to be faced by... "Oh dear."