Please, you unenlightened folks all have it wrong. It's an indisputable fact that the Flying Spaghetti Monster implanted that genetic information in Humans and Chimps just to make it LOOK like we're evolved from a common ancestor. He's so sneaky!
OK, I see now that you're from the other side of the pond. I guess that meants everyone was right! Now let's all get sussed over a couple pints and make fun of the French. Cheers!
We used to move about $40k-$60k a year in Dell hardware (not huge, but not too bad for a small firm) and we got a whopping 3% discount. Not even close to enough money to cover my time spent jumping through the stupid hoops that Dell made us go through to be a VAR. Also, my "dedicated sales rep" treated us like crap. I mean, really bad. (He once told me "You don't move enough product to warrant my time right now. I'll call you next week when I'm not busy.") I know he probably gets six figure deals and we were peons to him, but honestly, with the way he treated us, I had no incentive to sell more of their merchandise. The $50k was only when people specifically asked for Dell hardware. Towards the end I stopped recommending it altogether, then we switched to other hardware providers. If my story is typical, then I can see whey Dell is sliding.
I wasn't really commenting on the merits of that case. Just making an example that a really good lawyer will only take a contingency case like that if there is the prospect of a big payout. The GP poster might find a lawyer to take the **AA case on contingency, but probably not a good one.
Sorry, man. I love your attitude, and I think you are 100% correct idealogically, but that's not really how it would work. Unless you have a fair amount of money to start off with, (in the tens of thousands or more) you'll have a tough time finding a lawyer that will take this without being paid up front. It's not like you spilled hot coffee on your vagina and are suing McDonald's for $30 million. Many decent lawyers would jump at a case like that, because there is a reasonable chance that they could make bank on it. 25% of $30 million is a nice paycheck. No, in your case, the lawyer knows that the **AA will fight the case tooth and nail, regardless of whether or not they have a case. Chances are, their lawyers, which are not working on contengiency, are very, very good. They can drag it out to take up thousands of hours of your lawyers' time over a couple years. What's more, even if you do win a countersuit, a jury isn't going to award you $30 million out of sympathy. You didn't really lose anything except your time. No deaths or mutilated body parts that will make the jury feel sorry for you. No, at best, you can hope to have your legal fees reimbursed, which isn't going to be even close to 25% of $30 million. Maybe a couple hundred thousand, which your lawyer will gladly take. And there's not even a good chance of that happening.
No, my friend, you would have to pay a large retainer up front. Very large. And chances are, you would not see anything from any of that. Technically, you could win your case, but you will ultimately lose money. Yes, the system is screwed up and unfair, and the **AA knows that. Unfortunately, they are smart, and that's why they use these tactics.
First off, I love the show 24, but when I watch it, I have to shut my computer nerd brain off.
CHLOE: Jack, I'm going to open a socket to CTU so you can use your phone to upload the data from the thumb drive.
JACK: I can't upload it. Something's wrong!
CHLOE: It looks like the terrorists are trying to overload the router with IP addresses.
JACK: Can you find out where it's coming from?
CHLOE: I can't Jack, they're using a level 4 encryption algorhythm. It'll take me a few hours to decipher it.
JACK: Maybe you can use some of the bandwidth from the FBI servers to help break the encryption!
CHLOE: That might work, but I'll need level 5 network access from the FBI. I'll call you back!
It's a damn good thing that show has other good qualities...
It sounds like you and agree, then. I suspected I might have misinterpreted your initial post, which is why I threw out a warning before resorting to namecalling.:)
Re:JW article on Bloodless Surgery
on
Bloodless Surgery
·
· Score: 1
Your point is well taken. Like I said, that story was purely anecdotal, and if I had to have surgery, I think I would opt for whatever would be more likely to keep me alive. Also, if everyone opted for bloodless surgery, it would become just as routine. The only reason you get special treatment now is because it's "something different."
Let me make sure I understand your post: Are you saying that because Kubuntu exists, there is no reason to install Windows? If I misread your post I apologize, but if you're insulting this guy because he says that Linux may not be viable, and in some cases Windows may be better, than you, sir, are the uninformed troll. That's like saying "Motorcycles exist, therefore there is no need for cars and trucks." Sure, motorcycles might be great, but they're not for everyone. They might get YOU from point A to point B, but they're not going to get my 80 year old grandfather anywhere. And without trucks, there would be no way to get the food you eat to Wal-Mart. Plus, what about in the winter, or when it's raining?
Linux is a great way to get from point A to point B for some people, under some conditions. But there is still room in the world for more than one operating system. The car analogy works great here. Linux could be your motorcycle. Cheaper, more efficient, more technically challenging, able to zip through stopped traffic (if you live in California.) However, they are mostly for enthusiasts who are "in to motorcycles." You don't buy a motorcycle if you just want to casually go out and drive. Windows is the sedan of the OS world. Good for old people, very functional as a general purpose vehicle in nearly all weather conditions. Breaks down more often, but reasonably reliable. Comprises most of the traffic on the road. Then Unix are your semi trucks. You need a special license to operate them. Extremely powerful, but not really accessible to the general public. They are the workhorses, serving as the backbone to the transportation infrastructure. Extremely reliable with routine maintenance, and usually the people who operate them are paid to do so.
So just because this guy thought about motorcycles for his company and decided they would not fit their needs doesn't make him uninformed, nor a troll. I am a competant sysadmin, and while I like Linux, I would not want to deploy it to most of my users. Just wouldn't fit for my company. That's not saying in any way that it's bad. On the contrary, I use it often, but I am an enthusiast. Maybe someday, it will develop to the point where it's more universally applicable. Sort of like how cars are getting smaller and motorcycles are getting bigger. Some day there might be a crossover, but we are a ways from that point.
Re:JW article on Bloodless Surgery
on
Bloodless Surgery
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Speaking from personal experience, my mother-in-law ruptured her spleen and didn't go to the doctor for 2-4 weeks. (She didn't know when she ruptured it.) She bled internally for this entire time, eventually ending up unconscious in the Emergency Room from blood loss, where they decided it needed to be removed. My in-laws are extremely devout Jehovah's Witnesses, and refused any sort of transfusion. The doctor told my father-in-law "Your wife will die without a transfusion. She's lost too much blood." They opted for blodless surgery anyways.
Keep in mind that I do not personally subscribe to these beliefs, but this is what I, as an outsider, observed: (Anecdotal, yes, but it's all I have to go on.) They called in their best surgeon. The surgery took much longer than a "normal" splenectomy. The surgeon took extra time and went slow. All the internal sutures had to be extra clean to avoid blood loss. Even the external sutures were done with great care. They were so careful with blood loss that she lost less than half a pint of blood through the whole procedure. (Almost all of that half-pint was in the spleen, or so the surgeon said.) My mother-in-law survived the surgery. (although it was pretty dicey for about 24 hours - the hospital told the family to make sure her "affairs were in order.") She recovered in record time. No complications. Even the scar was less visible than a typical surgery scar.
So regardless of religious views, it seems to me that if you request a bloodless surgery, you get better medical care. Rather than trying to chop you up and sew you back together as quickly as possible to free up the operating room for the next job, everyone involved seems to slow down and take things easy. You become that pain in the ass exception that they need to take extra special care of. Rather than run you through the mill, they have to take you off the assembly line, look at your special needs. I still doubt that I personally would opt for a bloodless surgery, but it really gave me pause to think about the whole idea.
Don't kid yourself. Perot stood a real chance of winning the election in 1992. He took himself out of real consideration by dropping out of the race, then getting back in.
Apple also needs something a little more robust, to offer such features as some PDA like functionality, games, or better video support (i.e. HD video out).
Yes, Apple clearly needs to do something about it's 80% market share in the portable music player business. I mean, clearly, consumers aren't about to put up with this shoddiness.
I'm sorry, but capitalism has a simple answer to this problem, and it's not any kind of regulation. When people see the greed that Madonna exhibits, they will come to the conclusion on their own that $250 is too much to pay. You seem to be distraught over this problem yourself, and the simple answer is that when enough people are distraught, her sales will go down. As long as she makes money charging $250 a ticket, there is no reason she should not do this. You can easily apply this same rationale to sports. I am a big sports fan, but I made the determination that they shouldn't be paying baseball players $75 million to go hit a ball. The answer? Stop going to baseball games. People complain about A-Rod making tons of money, and they complain that it costs $6 for a hot dog at a ball game. Guess what? Those phenomena are directly related. If people stopped going to baseball games, the owners would start losing money, and players would stop being paid huge amounts of money. Alternatively, you could combat this by starting your own league. One where the players only make $50,000 a year. You hire the best employees you can at that price, then see what quality of players show up for spring training. Then you see if you can sell tickets to this event. Who knows, maybe you could turn a profit. That's the beauty of capitalism!
Quick, someon patent a technology that makes me unable to get up and take a dump while commercials are playing. Maybe a special chair that's required while watching TV. When the commercials come on, metal rings bolt my arms and legs to the chair so I can't get up. Then, a little robotic arm comes out of the headrest and holds my eyelids open so I can't close my eyes. The volume on the TV is autoatically turned up so that I am unable to think of anything else while I am bombarded with the new Chili's advertisement.
I had 4 boxes replaced before the firmware update to mine. Since then: zero. No replacements, no problems. Just awesomeness. I know that they tell you it's not a firmware problem, but believe me, IT IS. They will pretend like they don't know what you're talking about, and they will pretend that they've never heard of the problems that you are describing, but they have. Just keep having them come out to replace the box. Eventually, they will realize how much it's costing them, and there IS a solution out there. It just sounds like they are choosing to ignore it.
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Please, you unenlightened folks all have it wrong. It's an indisputable fact that the Flying Spaghetti Monster implanted that genetic information in Humans and Chimps just to make it LOOK like we're evolved from a common ancestor. He's so sneaky!
Arrrrrrrr matey...
And, it seems that I don't speak British either. Maybe I should've said "Let'd get pissed over a couple pints and make fun of the French."
OK, I see now that you're from the other side of the pond. I guess that meants everyone was right! Now let's all get sussed over a couple pints and make fun of the French. Cheers!
Sorry, I have to do this:
;)
Here's the rest of the wiki quote which _you_ neglected to quote:
UK and Spain reserved frequencies
* 35 MHz: aircraft only.
* 40 MHz: surface vehicles.
Weren't we talking about BPL in the US?
Sorry, just stirring the pot.
We used to move about $40k-$60k a year in Dell hardware (not huge, but not too bad for a small firm) and we got a whopping 3% discount. Not even close to enough money to cover my time spent jumping through the stupid hoops that Dell made us go through to be a VAR. Also, my "dedicated sales rep" treated us like crap. I mean, really bad. (He once told me "You don't move enough product to warrant my time right now. I'll call you next week when I'm not busy.") I know he probably gets six figure deals and we were peons to him, but honestly, with the way he treated us, I had no incentive to sell more of their merchandise. The $50k was only when people specifically asked for Dell hardware. Towards the end I stopped recommending it altogether, then we switched to other hardware providers. If my story is typical, then I can see whey Dell is sliding.
Yeah, but not 6 months ago.
I wasn't really commenting on the merits of that case. Just making an example that a really good lawyer will only take a contingency case like that if there is the prospect of a big payout. The GP poster might find a lawyer to take the **AA case on contingency, but probably not a good one.
OK, exactly which district in NC is this, and do you know if they have a lot of banks?
Sorry, man. I love your attitude, and I think you are 100% correct idealogically, but that's not really how it would work. Unless you have a fair amount of money to start off with, (in the tens of thousands or more) you'll have a tough time finding a lawyer that will take this without being paid up front. It's not like you spilled hot coffee on your vagina and are suing McDonald's for $30 million. Many decent lawyers would jump at a case like that, because there is a reasonable chance that they could make bank on it. 25% of $30 million is a nice paycheck. No, in your case, the lawyer knows that the **AA will fight the case tooth and nail, regardless of whether or not they have a case. Chances are, their lawyers, which are not working on contengiency, are very, very good. They can drag it out to take up thousands of hours of your lawyers' time over a couple years. What's more, even if you do win a countersuit, a jury isn't going to award you $30 million out of sympathy. You didn't really lose anything except your time. No deaths or mutilated body parts that will make the jury feel sorry for you. No, at best, you can hope to have your legal fees reimbursed, which isn't going to be even close to 25% of $30 million. Maybe a couple hundred thousand, which your lawyer will gladly take. And there's not even a good chance of that happening.
No, my friend, you would have to pay a large retainer up front. Very large. And chances are, you would not see anything from any of that. Technically, you could win your case, but you will ultimately lose money. Yes, the system is screwed up and unfair, and the **AA knows that. Unfortunately, they are smart, and that's why they use these tactics.
Yeah, I have trouble enough opening a Microsoft Word document created on a Macintosh, let alone a system-destroying, self-propogating network worm...
Anyone who's ever seen the error message "Quicktime(tm) and a TIFF(LZW) decompressor are needed to see this picture" knows what I'm talking about...
First off, I love the show 24, but when I watch it, I have to shut my computer nerd brain off.
CHLOE: Jack, I'm going to open a socket to CTU so you can use your phone to upload the data from the thumb drive.
JACK: I can't upload it. Something's wrong!
CHLOE: It looks like the terrorists are trying to overload the router with IP addresses.
JACK: Can you find out where it's coming from?
CHLOE: I can't Jack, they're using a level 4 encryption algorhythm. It'll take me a few hours to decipher it.
JACK: Maybe you can use some of the bandwidth from the FBI servers to help break the encryption!
CHLOE: That might work, but I'll need level 5 network access from the FBI. I'll call you back!
It's a damn good thing that show has other good qualities...
It sounds like you and agree, then. I suspected I might have misinterpreted your initial post, which is why I threw out a warning before resorting to namecalling. :)
Your point is well taken. Like I said, that story was purely anecdotal, and if I had to have surgery, I think I would opt for whatever would be more likely to keep me alive. Also, if everyone opted for bloodless surgery, it would become just as routine. The only reason you get special treatment now is because it's "something different."
Let me make sure I understand your post: Are you saying that because Kubuntu exists, there is no reason to install Windows? If I misread your post I apologize, but if you're insulting this guy because he says that Linux may not be viable, and in some cases Windows may be better, than you, sir, are the uninformed troll. That's like saying "Motorcycles exist, therefore there is no need for cars and trucks." Sure, motorcycles might be great, but they're not for everyone. They might get YOU from point A to point B, but they're not going to get my 80 year old grandfather anywhere. And without trucks, there would be no way to get the food you eat to Wal-Mart. Plus, what about in the winter, or when it's raining?
Linux is a great way to get from point A to point B for some people, under some conditions. But there is still room in the world for more than one operating system. The car analogy works great here. Linux could be your motorcycle. Cheaper, more efficient, more technically challenging, able to zip through stopped traffic (if you live in California.) However, they are mostly for enthusiasts who are "in to motorcycles." You don't buy a motorcycle if you just want to casually go out and drive. Windows is the sedan of the OS world. Good for old people, very functional as a general purpose vehicle in nearly all weather conditions. Breaks down more often, but reasonably reliable. Comprises most of the traffic on the road. Then Unix are your semi trucks. You need a special license to operate them. Extremely powerful, but not really accessible to the general public. They are the workhorses, serving as the backbone to the transportation infrastructure. Extremely reliable with routine maintenance, and usually the people who operate them are paid to do so.
So just because this guy thought about motorcycles for his company and decided they would not fit their needs doesn't make him uninformed, nor a troll. I am a competant sysadmin, and while I like Linux, I would not want to deploy it to most of my users. Just wouldn't fit for my company. That's not saying in any way that it's bad. On the contrary, I use it often, but I am an enthusiast. Maybe someday, it will develop to the point where it's more universally applicable. Sort of like how cars are getting smaller and motorcycles are getting bigger. Some day there might be a crossover, but we are a ways from that point.
Speaking from personal experience, my mother-in-law ruptured her spleen and didn't go to the doctor for 2-4 weeks. (She didn't know when she ruptured it.) She bled internally for this entire time, eventually ending up unconscious in the Emergency Room from blood loss, where they decided it needed to be removed. My in-laws are extremely devout Jehovah's Witnesses, and refused any sort of transfusion. The doctor told my father-in-law "Your wife will die without a transfusion. She's lost too much blood." They opted for blodless surgery anyways.
Keep in mind that I do not personally subscribe to these beliefs, but this is what I, as an outsider, observed: (Anecdotal, yes, but it's all I have to go on.) They called in their best surgeon. The surgery took much longer than a "normal" splenectomy. The surgeon took extra time and went slow. All the internal sutures had to be extra clean to avoid blood loss. Even the external sutures were done with great care. They were so careful with blood loss that she lost less than half a pint of blood through the whole procedure. (Almost all of that half-pint was in the spleen, or so the surgeon said.) My mother-in-law survived the surgery. (although it was pretty dicey for about 24 hours - the hospital told the family to make sure her "affairs were in order.") She recovered in record time. No complications. Even the scar was less visible than a typical surgery scar.
So regardless of religious views, it seems to me that if you request a bloodless surgery, you get better medical care. Rather than trying to chop you up and sew you back together as quickly as possible to free up the operating room for the next job, everyone involved seems to slow down and take things easy. You become that pain in the ass exception that they need to take extra special care of. Rather than run you through the mill, they have to take you off the assembly line, look at your special needs. I still doubt that I personally would opt for a bloodless surgery, but it really gave me pause to think about the whole idea.
Dude, you're a little paranoid.
Besides, they can already read my thoughts from space, so it really doesn't matter what can and cannot be traced. Now where's my tinfoil hat...
Soon to be available in Latin, Greek and Mongolian...
Don't kid yourself. Perot stood a real chance of winning the election in 1992. He took himself out of real consideration by dropping out of the race, then getting back in.
... would certaily push a lot of users like me over the edge to the Macintosh camp. If only I had bought that Apple stock 10 years ago...
Yes, Apple clearly needs to do something about it's 80% market share in the portable music player business. I mean, clearly, consumers aren't about to put up with this shoddiness.
I'm sorry, but capitalism has a simple answer to this problem, and it's not any kind of regulation. When people see the greed that Madonna exhibits, they will come to the conclusion on their own that $250 is too much to pay. You seem to be distraught over this problem yourself, and the simple answer is that when enough people are distraught, her sales will go down. As long as she makes money charging $250 a ticket, there is no reason she should not do this. You can easily apply this same rationale to sports. I am a big sports fan, but I made the determination that they shouldn't be paying baseball players $75 million to go hit a ball. The answer? Stop going to baseball games. People complain about A-Rod making tons of money, and they complain that it costs $6 for a hot dog at a ball game. Guess what? Those phenomena are directly related. If people stopped going to baseball games, the owners would start losing money, and players would stop being paid huge amounts of money. Alternatively, you could combat this by starting your own league. One where the players only make $50,000 a year. You hire the best employees you can at that price, then see what quality of players show up for spring training. Then you see if you can sell tickets to this event. Who knows, maybe you could turn a profit. That's the beauty of capitalism!
I would be remiss not to post this link. Too much time on his hands? Yeah, probably. But still, cool as hell. :)
Quick, someon patent a technology that makes me unable to get up and take a dump while commercials are playing. Maybe a special chair that's required while watching TV. When the commercials come on, metal rings bolt my arms and legs to the chair so I can't get up. Then, a little robotic arm comes out of the headrest and holds my eyelids open so I can't close my eyes. The volume on the TV is autoatically turned up so that I am unable to think of anything else while I am bombarded with the new Chili's advertisement.
Man, I'm gonna be rich...
Man... I had mod points yesterday! Where are they when you need them? Unfortunately, I think this troll got away with it this time.
I had 4 boxes replaced before the firmware update to mine. Since then: zero. No replacements, no problems. Just awesomeness. I know that they tell you it's not a firmware problem, but believe me, IT IS. They will pretend like they don't know what you're talking about, and they will pretend that they've never heard of the problems that you are describing, but they have. Just keep having them come out to replace the box. Eventually, they will realize how much it's costing them, and there IS a solution out there. It just sounds like they are choosing to ignore it.