Specifically, it won't matter if you post-date it; it's cashed or deposited when presented.
If they want to. I've had my paycheck refused for deposit because they hand them out on Friday but they're dated for Saturday. The company says that officially payday IS Saturday. My solution was to just drive to another branch of my bank where the teller didn't care.
You say you have an inquiring mind - so I hope you wont take offense if I point out that your question would have been better phrased this way - "Why would the Department of Revenue use a laptop with sensitive information, making it easier to steal than a desktop?"
Or "Why would the Department of Revenue use a laptop for sensitive information, making it easier to steal than a desktop?" since the type of computer equipment in the frame of usage is the subject, not the equipment itself with the modifier of sensitive information being on it.
A far better sentence would have been "Why would the Department of Revenue keep sensitive information on a laptop, where it is easier to steal, than on a desktop?"
In the time people have been complaining about the lack of a mid-range Mac, those same people would easily have saved enough for a Mac Pro...
Some people complaining would really like a machine that that isn't as large as the Mac Pro. even if they could have saved up enough money to make up the price difference between the cost of the fictional "midrange Tower (or Desktop)" and the MacPro, is that any reason for them to spend the money on the computer when they don't need it? They could use the extra money on software to make their Mac more useful.
He compared it to making a phone call and getting a busy signal, then trying again and getting through.
In the case of getting a busy signal, the party you are trying to reach is already on the phone, thereby denying you the ability to reach them.* This is more like you try to call someone and get the "all circuits are busy" message, then try again and get through. The point is in the example he used, the reason you can't connect is because of the answering party, not your phone company. Which closer to what is happening. And getting the "all circuits is busy" message is a sign of too little capacity, and considered poor service. Which is really what's going on at Comcast, too.
------ * We'll ignore CallWaiting, and the fact most phone companies let you have two calls running at the same time, alternating between them. Heck on some can combine them into a conference call on the fly.
A Primary PE has to process 5 new and 5 old applications every 2 weeks (that's 8 hours each, folks).
That doesn't sound like much time. Yet I am reminded of all the stupid things that have been approved for patent, that are then posted as stories on Slashdot, and then a bunch of people post prior art they found after 10 minutes of Google searching.
Seriously? Ha ha ha ha! Aren't you supposed to be reading from a script right now?
Actually we don't use scripts in the companies I've worked for (I've worked for three), I would generally avoid them anyway as they sound so wooden and lots of times don't have real solutions to the problems the customers are having. Do you know it's possible for your remote to stop working and have the issue be the converter instead? The part of the box that interprets remote control commands can stop working while the box's front panel buttons continue to function. The solution is to unplug the power to the box for a short while. The remote is fine.
Or asking someone to unplug their TV from the wall for ten seconds and then plug it back in again?
...and I usually wait a full minute for digital boxes to allow capacitors to power down and the head end to fully realize the box is off the network, it's more likely the box will reload from scratch then and solve the issue.
You lost all credibility with me when you said that you work customer support for a cable company. The only lower life forms are the people who do Road Runner tech support.
I also do tech support for internet and digital phone, and I grudgingly do sales and billing support. If tech support people have so little credibility with you, I don't know why you'd adopt cable services that virtually guarantee you'll be calling us more often.
For video, I have people who call because...
their box has "lost authorization" for no good reason, sometimes only on certain stations.
audio is out of sync with video.
digital cable in its entirely is not working (but analog cable is).
video service is out (all video service).
their cable box remote is not controlling their TV's functions.
general reception issues (static OR microblocking to lump digital and analog here).
can't order Pay-Per-View/use Video-On-Demand
Now if we look at this list, these are the seven technical issues I deal with most for video (in no particular order). Three of these issues will effect both analog and digital service. The other four will only effect digital service, though. The audio/video syncing issue will happen most on digital, when it happens on analog it's a station issue (not your cableco). The PPV/VOD can be ignored since it isn't available on analog (analog PPV is leaving if not gone already). None of these issues will effect only analog service, though. This is the basis for my assertion analog cable is more reliable. I can look over the call histories for digital customers and there are customers who call us at least once a month for some service issue. Meanwhile, many of the analog customers go years without calling for a service issue.
Here's the real shocker, people actually believe there is a difference in the customer service between companies. I really work for an outsourcer, and several of the nations larger cable companies have had support provided by us over the years. So when you call your cable company, we're working across the aisle from other companies' reps. Sometimes your cable provider's direct competitors. Also, employees are transferred between these companies quite often, a few work for more than one at the same time (at different hours). If there is difference in the kind of care you receive between providers, its pretty much dependent on how much access those reps are given to the billing/tech systems, and what company's policies are.
Believe me, we generally are on your side when you call for credit on some issue that was small in the grand scheme of your monthly service but large in your viewing habits, but we can't always grant credit because we aren't allowed to.
Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mention I'm a cable TV support rep. So I will have to claim this as original research.
Hint: Every time you've gotten the "Your cable set top box is not authorized for use" screen and had to call the cable company to get a signal sent, or had to unplug it, ect. Those are all service issues you would NOT have experienced had you still been on analog basic.
Digital cable is effected by all the same line issues that effect analog cable, PLUS all problems unique to using an external tuner, PLUS all problems possible with a DRM system in place. You don't need to actually count occurrences to see that, logically, digital cable will be less reliable, simply because there are more points of failure.
I don't understand all the FUD around the switch to digital. If the analog Luddites want to stick with their 20" TV that they bought with their first paycheck after college 30 years ago, get a cable box.
So we can start paying per TV for our cable? 1985 called, they want their converter rental scheme back. Also, boxes aren't as reliable as television tuners, mostly due to the DRM crap.
Really, how is it an issue for analog cable signals to be coming in and your phone service to still support pulse dialing even though you're not using them? All this means is you have to buy TV's with digital tuners or rent a converter box for every analog TV you own now and you couldn't try out an antique phone if you ever inherited one.
Economics dictate things a bit differently. Forced conversion would increase demand with unchanged supply. This will *raise* the prices, potentially a lot. After the peak, the supply would have caught up and demand will drop. Only then prices will *drop*.
Forced conversion will also lead to HD sets no longer being considered a "luxury item". Right now 16:9 sets command a premium because if you can't afford it, there's always plain old 4:3 analog TV still out there. Once it becomes the norm, manufacturers will pretty much have to lower the prices to recapture the market. People can't afford $500 for a TV in "da projects".
It looks to me like they never got the upgrade promise in writing, and now they're whining that Google is failing to acknowledge a verbal promise made by the old dev. team. To which I say, "So what?" Isn't the first rule of corporate dealings, "Get it in writing or don't get it at all?"
Isn't this exactly the same as Microsoft's Software Assurance troubles? All those companies bought contracts for upgrades for their software for a set period of time, then Microsoft never actually released any new products, till the very end of the contract deadline - pretty much in response to some companies threatening to sue. The result is Windows Vista: shipped only half done.
I don't hear people saying "them's the breaks" on those threads.
Would you turn down the chance to live on the moon? Be one of the first dozen people to live on a heavenly body for an extended period of time.
How cool would it be to come back to earth and be able to say "I've lived on the moon." Kinda puts that "year I lived in Prague" in a different league.
Is there also a law that an unlocked phone must be cheaper than a locked phone plus contract?
A phone plus contract is cheaper because the phone price is being subsidized by the carrier. Apple/AT&T have stated the iPhone hardware is not subsidized in the U.S., so they would have to justify a huge price increase over the U.S. pricing.
That's actually a very good idea for them. The big argument right now is that Apple can't release an unlocked phone in another market due to grey market import of unlocked phones. Soooo, release it locked by another carrier in a new market.
I don't see how this solves the problem brought up by this article. Apple can't just sell the phone locked to another provider, French law says it has to be available with NO provider as well, even if they do a partnership. If that happens a load of those unlocked Apple iPhones will be shipped back to the U.S. and sold at a premium to everyone else, since the French iPhone will be new, it will be at firmware 1.1.1 already.
One of the issues here is Apple has already stated that the iPhone is not subsidized by AT&T. This sets an actual value on the product. Which means that when they release the unlocked one in France they can't just jack up the price to astronomical amounts to keep people from buying it unlocked with the excuse that "well, it's subsided under the agreements" cause they've already said its not.
I wonder sometimes if Apple left a few bugs in the iPhone (or features out of it) on purpose so it could have an excuse to ship a patched firmware. Then they just wait for people to hack the phone, Apple studies how they hacked it, make a patch that breaks it, and add a few fixes for the bugs they left in. Ta-Da! Now they have a unlock breaker being released as a bug fixer. As long as the bugs they leave in/features they leave out are important enough to get people to download and install it, they will be successful.
Yes, hence the comment about grey-market imports. It's unlikely that AT&T would be happy with the iPhone being sold unlocked in any country, as those unlocked phones could then be imported into the US, despite the exclusivity agreement.
This is why marketing products differently, in different countries, in the 21st Century is stupid to begin with. With the Internet and FedEx, physical location doesn't mean anything in regards to availability anymore. This isn't the 1500's where getting electronics from around the world was a months long affair.
This is excellent, it means those EU countries which won't accept iPhone will have to churn out something thats a whole lot better
I don't see how. If Nokia, Samsung, etc don't have to worry about competing with the iPhone in Europe (thanks to Apple's marketing blunder of signing up with AT&T), what pressure is there for them to make a better product?
# The DMCA has an exemption for users to unlock their own phone # But the DMCA still prevents sharing of code that circumvents locks # So while you may unlock it, you must be able to do it all on your own # Leaving Apple free to use DRM, to make exercising your rights very difficult
This is the problem with the DMCA exemption. It doesn't give consumers any exemption, really. Most people are not EE's or software programmers. So to unlock their phones, they must purchase/recieve the lock from someone else, which is NOT allowed under the DMCA. The barrier to entry is too high.
To use a fitting analogy, it would be like the U.S. government not allowing people to leave the country and travel overseas unless they built their own boat, and its illegal to buy a boat from a shipbuilder or download blueprints over the internet. They might as well just tell everyone they have to stay home.
For what? A person who doesn't need to go anywhere? It's only environmentally helpful if the extra passengers ride with you in place of taking their own cars to the same destination. If they aren't going there there anyway you aren't taking any cars off the roads.
Although having extra weight in your car would reduce your gas mileage.
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If they want to. I've had my paycheck refused for deposit because they hand them out on Friday but they're dated for Saturday. The company says that officially payday IS Saturday. My solution was to just drive to another branch of my bank where the teller didn't care.
Or an accident, in which case the Challenger will be the one doing the crushing.
Or "Why would the Department of Revenue use a laptop for sensitive information, making it easier to steal than a desktop?" since the type of computer equipment in the frame of usage is the subject, not the equipment itself with the modifier of sensitive information being on it.
A far better sentence would have been "Why would the Department of Revenue keep sensitive information on a laptop, where it is easier to steal, than on a desktop?"
Some people complaining would really like a machine that that isn't as large as the Mac Pro. even if they could have saved up enough money to make up the price difference between the cost of the fictional "midrange Tower (or Desktop)" and the MacPro, is that any reason for them to spend the money on the computer when they don't need it? They could use the extra money on software to make their Mac more useful.
In the case of getting a busy signal, the party you are trying to reach is already on the phone, thereby denying you the ability to reach them.* This is more like you try to call someone and get the "all circuits are busy" message, then try again and get through. The point is in the example he used, the reason you can't connect is because of the answering party, not your phone company. Which closer to what is happening. And getting the "all circuits is busy" message is a sign of too little capacity, and considered poor service. Which is really what's going on at Comcast, too.
------
* We'll ignore CallWaiting, and the fact most phone companies let you have two calls running at the same time, alternating between them. Heck on some can combine them into a conference call on the fly.
Probably not that far from the truth the way things are going.
Vista truly is the new ME.
That might be a problem when you're designing automated weapon systems.
That doesn't sound like much time. Yet I am reminded of all the stupid things that have been approved for patent, that are then posted as stories on Slashdot, and then a bunch of people post prior art they found after 10 minutes of Google searching.
Actually we don't use scripts in the companies I've worked for (I've worked for three), I would generally avoid them anyway as they sound so wooden and lots of times don't have real solutions to the problems the customers are having. Do you know it's possible for your remote to stop working and have the issue be the converter instead? The part of the box that interprets remote control commands can stop working while the box's front panel buttons continue to function. The solution is to unplug the power to the box for a short while. The remote is fine.
I also do tech support for internet and digital phone, and I grudgingly do sales and billing support. If tech support people have so little credibility with you, I don't know why you'd adopt cable services that virtually guarantee you'll be calling us more often.
For video, I have people who call because...
Now if we look at this list, these are the seven technical issues I deal with most for video (in no particular order). Three of these issues will effect both analog and digital service. The other four will only effect digital service, though. The audio/video syncing issue will happen most on digital, when it happens on analog it's a station issue (not your cableco). The PPV/VOD can be ignored since it isn't available on analog (analog PPV is leaving if not gone already). None of these issues will effect only analog service, though. This is the basis for my assertion analog cable is more reliable. I can look over the call histories for digital customers and there are customers who call us at least once a month for some service issue. Meanwhile, many of the analog customers go years without calling for a service issue.
Here's the real shocker, people actually believe there is a difference in the customer service between companies. I really work for an outsourcer, and several of the nations larger cable companies have had support provided by us over the years. So when you call your cable company, we're working across the aisle from other companies' reps. Sometimes your cable provider's direct competitors. Also, employees are transferred between these companies quite often, a few work for more than one at the same time (at different hours). If there is difference in the kind of care you receive between providers, its pretty much dependent on how much access those reps are given to the billing/tech systems, and what company's policies are.
Believe me, we generally are on your side when you call for credit on some issue that was small in the grand scheme of your monthly service but large in your viewing habits, but we can't always grant credit because we aren't allowed to.
Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mention I'm a cable TV support rep. So I will have to claim this as original research.
Hint: Every time you've gotten the "Your cable set top box is not authorized for use" screen and had to call the cable company to get a signal sent, or had to unplug it, ect. Those are all service issues you would NOT have experienced had you still been on analog basic.
Digital cable is effected by all the same line issues that effect analog cable, PLUS all problems unique to using an external tuner, PLUS all problems possible with a DRM system in place. You don't need to actually count occurrences to see that, logically, digital cable will be less reliable, simply because there are more points of failure.
For the unwashed masses TV is the world. Must be why Nostradamus is featured in Weekly World News and the Sun so often.
So we can start paying per TV for our cable? 1985 called, they want their converter rental scheme back. Also, boxes aren't as reliable as television tuners, mostly due to the DRM crap.
So cable operators can increase revenue from equipment rental.
So you like lack of choice as a consumer?
Really, how is it an issue for analog cable signals to be coming in and your phone service to still support pulse dialing even though you're not using them? All this means is you have to buy TV's with digital tuners or rent a converter box for every analog TV you own now and you couldn't try out an antique phone if you ever inherited one.
Forced conversion will also lead to HD sets no longer being considered a "luxury item". Right now 16:9 sets command a premium because if you can't afford it, there's always plain old 4:3 analog TV still out there. Once it becomes the norm, manufacturers will pretty much have to lower the prices to recapture the market. People can't afford $500 for a TV in "da projects".
Isn't this exactly the same as Microsoft's Software Assurance troubles? All those companies bought contracts for upgrades for their software for a set period of time, then Microsoft never actually released any new products, till the very end of the contract deadline - pretty much in response to some companies threatening to sue. The result is Windows Vista: shipped only half done.
I don't hear people saying "them's the breaks" on those threads.
Would you turn down the chance to live on the moon? Be one of the first dozen people to live on a heavenly body for an extended period of time.
How cool would it be to come back to earth and be able to say "I've lived on the moon." Kinda puts that "year I lived in Prague" in a different league.
A phone plus contract is cheaper because the phone price is being subsidized by the carrier. Apple/AT&T have stated the iPhone hardware is not subsidized in the U.S., so they would have to justify a huge price increase over the U.S. pricing.
I don't see how this solves the problem brought up by this article. Apple can't just sell the phone locked to another provider, French law says it has to be available with NO provider as well, even if they do a partnership. If that happens a load of those unlocked Apple iPhones will be shipped back to the U.S. and sold at a premium to everyone else, since the French iPhone will be new, it will be at firmware 1.1.1 already.
One of the issues here is Apple has already stated that the iPhone is not subsidized by AT&T. This sets an actual value on the product. Which means that when they release the unlocked one in France they can't just jack up the price to astronomical amounts to keep people from buying it unlocked with the excuse that "well, it's subsided under the agreements" cause they've already said its not.
I wonder sometimes if Apple left a few bugs in the iPhone (or features out of it) on purpose so it could have an excuse to ship a patched firmware. Then they just wait for people to hack the phone, Apple studies how they hacked it, make a patch that breaks it, and add a few fixes for the bugs they left in. Ta-Da! Now they have a unlock breaker being released as a bug fixer. As long as the bugs they leave in/features they leave out are important enough to get people to download and install it, they will be successful.
This is why marketing products differently, in different countries, in the 21st Century is stupid to begin with. With the Internet and FedEx, physical location doesn't mean anything in regards to availability anymore. This isn't the 1500's where getting electronics from around the world was a months long affair.
I don't see how. If Nokia, Samsung, etc don't have to worry about competing with the iPhone in Europe (thanks to Apple's marketing blunder of signing up with AT&T), what pressure is there for them to make a better product?
This is the problem with the DMCA exemption. It doesn't give consumers any exemption, really. Most people are not EE's or software programmers. So to unlock their phones, they must purchase/recieve the lock from someone else, which is NOT allowed under the DMCA. The barrier to entry is too high.
To use a fitting analogy, it would be like the U.S. government not allowing people to leave the country and travel overseas unless they built their own boat, and its illegal to buy a boat from a shipbuilder or download blueprints over the internet. They might as well just tell everyone they have to stay home.
Lawyer: "You don't need to take another sample..."
Prosecutor: "We don't need to take another sample."
Lawyer: "The case is dismissed, you're free to go..."
Yup, nothing new here. I'm tagging this "makincopies"
For what? A person who doesn't need to go anywhere? It's only environmentally helpful if the extra passengers ride with you in place of taking their own cars to the same destination. If they aren't going there there anyway you aren't taking any cars off the roads.
Although having extra weight in your car would reduce your gas mileage.