Frankly, this article, as well as almost all of the Ask Slashdots in recent memory, are no longer questions. They've become "I had a bad experience with (my employer, a company, a developer, you name it) and I want to build a little bad PR to get back at them". Ask Slashdots have become just a place to bitch, not a place to ask questions.
DMB charges the same on a regular night as Phish on NYE for the same venue, shows how greedy he is.
You can spin that however you want. I conclude that Phish is greedy -- DMB charges the same for every seat at every show, New Year's Eve or otherwise. Phish, on the other hand, wants to profit more off of their NYE show, and so they charge more. Phish is also far less popular than DMB, so I could also conclude that people are simply not willing to pay as much as they are for DMB. Finally, Dave Matthews Band's tickets costs are far below the average cost of tickets today, further indicating that you are full of shit.
Dave gets a bigger cut of the profit too I bet than any one member of Phish.
You completely made that up without any basis in fact or even rational speculation.
And, at least, phish as resonable ticket prices, not the $75/person charged by dave.
You completely made that up. Dave Matthews Band has never charged more than $50/ticket, front row or otherwise. Phish is $45 for their next show, at MSG on December 31st. DMB was $47.50 for last night's show. You must be new around these parts -- you can't just get away with making shit up on/.
Laying far too much fiber is a pretty sound financial move. Laying fiber is expensive. The fiber itself is cheap compared to the cost of gaining the rights to bury cable along a continuous stretch of land, and then actually digging the trenches, laying the cable, filling the hole back up and fixing whatever is at ground level. The theory goes that, as long as they're in there, they should lay insane amounts of cable. Whether or not they're laying the cable from the right points A to the right points B I can't say, but the fact that it's dark or insufficiently used doesn't necessarily indicate that anybody screwed up.
There's no reason why you have to use the QFX format for this. Most lending institutions will support the QIF format, which can be imported quite nicely into Quicken 2003 for Mac OS X. (I know, because I did it just last night.:) I don't know what the QFX format does, but I suspect that it allows Quicken to actually interact with your credit card, allowing payments to be made from within Quicken. QIF, on the other hand, merely provides a record of transaction that must be manually imported into Quicken each time.
Now, I can't speak for Quicken 2003, because I haven't tried it, and because Intuit's site doesn't go into details...but, Intuit does have a guide on how to get QFX files working on the Mac. Have you tried that?
Use an Apple Newton and buy batteries. I spent many months backpacking the Appalachian Trail in '96, and went through a bunch of laptops, phones, digital cameras and such. The best solution by a long shot was the Newton. It runs on 4 AAs, with a great battery life, it's really rugged, works in a far greater temperature range than a WinCE or a Palm, and doesn't seem to mind water all that much. Skip the solar charges -- AAs are used the world 'round, to the best of my knowledge. Just carry 8-12 with you and that'll do the trick. If you need to connect to the 'net via a cellular connection (as opposed to via landlines as you find them), be sure that you get an old school "brick" AMPS Motorola with an AA adaptor, or a newer one with an AA adaptor, if they exist. They take 6 AA batteries. Warning: Your Newton's battery life will plummet if you connect for long. So get your mail via POP, and connect, transmit data, and quickly disconnect. There are lots of people that remain active fans of the Newton, and the Newton 2000 will support most modern devices pretty well. Fall in with a Newton fan club and they'll set you up right.
Oh, and when people tell you that you're "missing the point" by bringing a computer, tell them to fuck off and eat it. Your point is your point, so you'll never miss it. What they really mean is that you're missing their point, which is one that should be of nobody's concern but theirs.
How important is it to actually do something? Apparently not very, right now at 09:35 this article has 15 comments, the mouse-human hybrid story has 150. When an article pops up in a month or two saying that Washington has pushed through some new zany legislation, remember you had a chance to contribute here.
Wrongo. The mouse-human hybrid story is on the front page. This story isn't. It's a matter of exposure, not interest.
The Democrats would've tripped all over themselves trying to implement this too, and the Republicans then would've made some fake gestures at not liking it.
Oh, I don't know. I mean, you could be right, but I suspect not. I think that the current batch of weak-kneed stock of Democrats in power (upon reflection, "power" might be too strong of a word) are willing to allow themselves to be run over roughshod with such a program, but I don't think that they would have implemented it themselves. At least, I'd like to hope not.
Uhm...correct me if I am wrong, but if you are using a Landline, can they not find your exact location w/in a few tens of centimeters, depending on the length of the cord from the hand-set to the base.
*Laugh* You got me on poor phrasing and a well-chosen segment of my stating for quoting purposes.:) Of course, I was referring not to having my telephone's location known, but, rather, my own location known, whether or not I'm talking on my phone.
Do you really think that out of 250 million people the feds will care that you took $90 out of the ATM or rented Ishtar? Get real.
No, but they might care that I purchase ammunition. (I target shoot.) They might have found it real interesting that I purchased.220 ammunition about three months ago, right before the sniper shootings with.220 ammunition started right here in Virginia. They might cross-reference that with my recent purchase of several books on the Muslim faith, and determine that I fit their model of the sniper. I, obviously, am not the sniper (of course, two excellent suspects are in custody now), but I would have had a hell of an experience trying to prove that to the FBI. This database would make exactly that sort of tracking not just possible, but the standard.
You're going to lead one hell of a life without a checkbook or cellphone.
I really don't think it will be a problem. You'll be surprised to note that billions of humans managed to survive for untold centuries without either of these things. You'll no doubt be shocked -- shocked -- that billions continue to function without these things. Why, did you know that in America today, there are still millions of people without cellular phones! It's boggling, I know!
Is using a land line phone any more secure? Didn't think so.
Much, much more secure. The use of a cellphone allows my location to be tracked. Currently, it can be tracked within a few miles. Soon, by a new FCC regulation ostensibly for E911 purposes, my location will be tracked within a few yards. My phone need not even be in use -- all of my movements can be tracked and databased, such that a permanent record of my every movement can be established. With a landline...um...not so much.
Christ, McFly, you do think before you reply, don't you? Looking at your posting history, though, it appears that I've answered my own question.
Here are some choice excerpts from that Pentagon briefing on TIA, for the lazy, with the bullshit cut out. Obviously, you can read the original if you prefer.
Q:... What are the privacy issues... ?
Aldridge: There are no privacy issues.
Q: Can you run over the transactions again? It sounds like every time I would enter or a citizen would enter a credit card, any banking transaction, any medical -- I go see my doctor, any prescription, all of those things become part of this database -- right? -- hypothetically?
Aldridge: Hypothetically they would...
Q: Every time they use a telephone, that call enters the database. And if it is voice recognition, for example, then that enters the database, hypothetically, right?
Aldridge: Hypothetically, yes.
When this goes into effect, the credit cards go. The checkbook goes. The ATM card goes. No more video rentals. The cellphone goes. Everything I e-mail out will be encrypted, though I expect that I'll use e-mail a lot less.
I like how their license agreement on the download page is in a text area in a form. I erased all of the text and wrote "ATI will give me one BILLION dollars," and submitted it. And they accepted it! Thanks to UCITA, that's valid, too. (I think. OTOH, who the hell can figure out UCITA?)
Ooh, I submitted it again and now they owe me a monkey. Pay up, ATI!
This story smells extremely fishy. I don't think we know all that's going on here. Something doesn't add up.
If you've never been the victim of something like this, you're either a total newbie or a liar. The fact is that, when people achieve a certain level of prominence in the world, they're going to have a troll. I had my very own troll earlier this year when I was running for office. I'd bet cash money that this guy couldn't pick me out of a crowd of two, and posted 25 fraudulent, slanderous messages just because it was amusing. Hell, I might do the same thing if you caught me in the right mood. I suppose you could postulate that surely I must have done something to cause somebody to be a dick to me, but you'd be wrong.
The fact is that shit happens, whether or not you think that life works like that. Rather than buying into his troll's problems, perhaps you could offer some tips as to what he should be doing to fix this problem.
I do all my tech work and writing under one name and I do all my psychic work and metaphysical writing under another name. According to the lawyer who instructed me, since I registered the name legally as an assumed name (in my city/place of business), I can use this name legally as if it were mine own. So far I've never had any trouble with it -- including accepting and cashing checks from clients.
Why do you need an attorney? As a psychic, I would think you'd know if you would ever have any trouble with it.;)
Armor Systems' Advantage and Premiere, both fine accounting packages (I gather -- I don't use them) both run on Unix. I don't know anything about their feature set, or even the difference between the two, but my girlfriend's mother (an accountant) runs them on her network, though on DOS, and she likes 'em fine. I've had to paw through the manual on a number of occasions when figuring out the whole multi-user setup, and there are constant references to making it run properly under Windows/DOS, Novell and Unix. Presumably it would be possible to get it to run under Linux.
Unfortunately, I know nothing more about Advantage on Linux now than I did at the time.
If your state has a sales tax, you have always been resposible for paying taxes on out of stata purchases to your franchise board. under Use tax.
Wrong. Federal law protects out-of-state sellers from having to collect taxes for states in which they have no physical presence. When you order from some catalogs, they list a few states and say that, if you order from those states, you have to pay a sales tax. That's because they have employees, offices or property in that state, and thus they are compelled to pay that use tax. Short of that well-known exception, you're completely wrong.
After years of disagreement, I no longer believe that Internet sales should be free of taxation as a class unto itself. I argued in the mid- to late-90s that the shipping cost was a barrier to the then dozen-or-so e-commerce sites, and we needed to not throw up more barriers to prevent the economic success of the Internet. The Internet has now had that development time, and I am no longer convinced that an exemption is necessary.
My remaining concerns are not sufficient to convince me that Internet taxation should not occur, but they are significant. The biggest one is the logistical nightmare of paying sales taxes to 50 different states, should that be the nature of the changed laws. Though the software end of calculating the fees surely wouldn't be difficult, the average mom-and-pop.com (and there are lots of them) would likely find having to file in so many different manners at different deadlines on different paperwork to be a significant problem.
"My brother was billed for over a year by a local Internet service provider via monthly withdrawals of ~$20 before he noticed." Sorry, if you don't look at the charges on your statement... well.. one month - I can agree - WTF are they doing? BASTARDS! But if you let it go for a year, well... sorry.
Well, that's pretty much what I told him.:) I gather that a good part of the problem was the merging-of-finances that went along with getting married. It took them about a year to get everything in order, the savings and checking accounts, merging duplicate services, making one person in charge of all such things, etc. Part of the awkwardness of getting married. I'm told.:)
IF YOU ARE STUPID ENOUGH TO AUTHORIZE ANY COMPANY TO DIRECTLY WITHDRAWL / DEBIT MONEY FROM ANY OF YOUR ACCOUNTS THEN YOU GET WHAT YOU DESERVE
That's a common misunderstanding. I know that it seems logical that there would be some sort of a cash-withdrawal authentication system but, amazingly, there's not. Anybody that wants to, via a bank transfer, withdraw any sum of cash from your account is free to. The burden of proof is on the consumer to prove that this is not a requirement.
I know this sounds crazy, and it took a while for me to be convinced, too. My brother was billed for over a year by a local Internet service provider via monthly withdrawals of ~$20 before he noticed. (He and his wife had just gotten married, and her employer's payroll company has the same name as the local ISP, and confusion reigned.) He went to our local bank to express his outrage, and left without satisfaction. I'm friends with pretty much ever employee at this local bank, so I went down to follow up. They explained this system to me as I have to you -- there's no authentication system whatsoever. There is currently no system in place at this particular bank to block such transfers, and they know of no such system in place at other banks. Truth be told, they regarded me as a little paranoid. But I get that a lot.;)
Giving a company permission to withdraw from your account certainly isn't helping the situation any, but it is in no way a requirement for them to rip you off. Anybody with one of your personal checks and a little know-how can do the same thing.
Slashdot Mirror
Frankly, this article, as well as almost all of the Ask Slashdots in recent memory, are no longer questions. They've become "I had a bad experience with (my employer, a company, a developer, you name it) and I want to build a little bad PR to get back at them". Ask Slashdots have become just a place to bitch, not a place to ask questions.
Hmm...if only there was some way that you didn't have to rely on your memory, some way that you could actually check and see if your "people are just griping" theory is accurate, or hogwash. Perhaps, with the promise of technology, this will some day be possible!
-Waldo Jaquith
DMB charges the same on a regular night as Phish on NYE for the same venue, shows how greedy he is.
You can spin that however you want. I conclude that Phish is greedy -- DMB charges the same for every seat at every show, New Year's Eve or otherwise. Phish, on the other hand, wants to profit more off of their NYE show, and so they charge more. Phish is also far less popular than DMB, so I could also conclude that people are simply not willing to pay as much as they are for DMB. Finally, Dave Matthews Band's tickets costs are far below the average cost of tickets today, further indicating that you are full of shit.
Dave gets a bigger cut of the profit too I bet than any one member of Phish.
You completely made that up without any basis in fact or even rational speculation.
-Waldo Jaquith
And, at least, phish as resonable ticket prices, not the $75/person charged by dave.
/.
You completely made that up. Dave Matthews Band has never charged more than $50/ticket, front row or otherwise. Phish is $45 for their next show, at MSG on December 31st. DMB was $47.50 for last night's show. You must be new around these parts -- you can't just get away with making shit up on
-Waldo Jaquith
Laying far too much fiber is a pretty sound financial move. Laying fiber is expensive. The fiber itself is cheap compared to the cost of gaining the rights to bury cable along a continuous stretch of land, and then actually digging the trenches, laying the cable, filling the hole back up and fixing whatever is at ground level. The theory goes that, as long as they're in there, they should lay insane amounts of cable. Whether or not they're laying the cable from the right points A to the right points B I can't say, but the fact that it's dark or insufficiently used doesn't necessarily indicate that anybody screwed up.
-Waldo Jaquith
There's no reason why you have to use the QFX format for this. Most lending institutions will support the QIF format, which can be imported quite nicely into Quicken 2003 for Mac OS X. (I know, because I did it just last night. :) I don't know what the QFX format does, but I suspect that it allows Quicken to actually interact with your credit card, allowing payments to be made from within Quicken. QIF, on the other hand, merely provides a record of transaction that must be manually imported into Quicken each time.
Now, I can't speak for Quicken 2003, because I haven't tried it, and because Intuit's site doesn't go into details...but, Intuit does have a guide on how to get QFX files working on the Mac. Have you tried that?
-Waldo Jaquith
You've just advised people to engage in a behavior which can justify their termination.
Holy shit -- they'll kill you for that? Dude, time to get a new job.
-Waldo Jaquith
Use an Apple Newton and buy batteries. I spent many months backpacking the Appalachian Trail in '96, and went through a bunch of laptops, phones, digital cameras and such. The best solution by a long shot was the Newton. It runs on 4 AAs, with a great battery life, it's really rugged, works in a far greater temperature range than a WinCE or a Palm, and doesn't seem to mind water all that much. Skip the solar charges -- AAs are used the world 'round, to the best of my knowledge. Just carry 8-12 with you and that'll do the trick. If you need to connect to the 'net via a cellular connection (as opposed to via landlines as you find them), be sure that you get an old school "brick" AMPS Motorola with an AA adaptor, or a newer one with an AA adaptor, if they exist. They take 6 AA batteries. Warning: Your Newton's battery life will plummet if you connect for long. So get your mail via POP, and connect, transmit data, and quickly disconnect. There are lots of people that remain active fans of the Newton, and the Newton 2000 will support most modern devices pretty well. Fall in with a Newton fan club and they'll set you up right.
Oh, and when people tell you that you're "missing the point" by bringing a computer, tell them to fuck off and eat it. Your point is your point, so you'll never miss it. What they really mean is that you're missing their point, which is one that should be of nobody's concern but theirs.
-Waldo Jaquith
How important is it to actually do something?
Apparently not very, right now at 09:35 this article has 15 comments, the mouse-human hybrid story has 150.
When an article pops up in a month or two saying that Washington has pushed through some new zany legislation, remember you had a chance to contribute here.
Wrongo. The mouse-human hybrid story is on the front page. This story isn't. It's a matter of exposure, not interest.
-Waldo Jaquith
The Democrats would've tripped all over themselves trying to implement this too, and the Republicans then would've made some fake gestures at not liking it.
Oh, I don't know. I mean, you could be right, but I suspect not. I think that the current batch of weak-kneed stock of Democrats in power (upon reflection, "power" might be too strong of a word) are willing to allow themselves to be run over roughshod with such a program, but I don't think that they would have implemented it themselves. At least, I'd like to hope not.
-Waldo Jaquith
Uhm...correct me if I am wrong, but if you are using a Landline, can they not find your exact location w/in a few tens of centimeters, depending on the length of the cord from the hand-set to the base.
:) Of course, I was referring not to having my telephone's location known, but, rather, my own location known, whether or not I'm talking on my phone.
:)
*Laugh* You got me on poor phrasing and a well-chosen segment of my stating for quoting purposes.
But it's still funny.
-Waldo Jaquith
Do you really think that out of 250 million people the feds will care that you took $90 out of the ATM or rented Ishtar? Get real.
.220 ammunition about three months ago, right before the sniper shootings with .220 ammunition started right here in Virginia. They might cross-reference that with my recent purchase of several books on the Muslim faith, and determine that I fit their model of the sniper. I, obviously, am not the sniper (of course, two excellent suspects are in custody now), but I would have had a hell of an experience trying to prove that to the FBI. This database would make exactly that sort of tracking not just possible, but the standard.
No, but they might care that I purchase ammunition. (I target shoot.) They might have found it real interesting that I purchased
You're going to lead one hell of a life without a checkbook or cellphone.
I really don't think it will be a problem. You'll be surprised to note that billions of humans managed to survive for untold centuries without either of these things. You'll no doubt be shocked -- shocked -- that billions continue to function without these things. Why, did you know that in America today, there are still millions of people without cellular phones! It's boggling, I know!
Is using a land line phone any more secure? Didn't think so.
Much, much more secure. The use of a cellphone allows my location to be tracked. Currently, it can be tracked within a few miles. Soon, by a new FCC regulation ostensibly for E911 purposes, my location will be tracked within a few yards. My phone need not even be in use -- all of my movements can be tracked and databased, such that a permanent record of my every movement can be established. With a landline...um...not so much.
Christ, McFly, you do think before you reply, don't you? Looking at your posting history, though, it appears that I've answered my own question.
-Waldo Jaquith
Here are some choice excerpts from that Pentagon briefing on TIA, for the lazy, with the bullshit cut out. Obviously, you can read the original if you prefer.
... What are the privacy issues ... ?
Q:
Aldridge: There are no privacy issues.
Q: Can you run over the transactions again? It sounds like every time I would enter or a citizen would enter a credit card, any banking transaction, any medical -- I go see my doctor, any prescription, all of those things become part of this database -- right? -- hypothetically?
Aldridge: Hypothetically they would...
Q: Every time they use a telephone, that call enters the database. And if it is voice recognition, for example, then that enters the database, hypothetically, right?
Aldridge: Hypothetically, yes.
When this goes into effect, the credit cards go. The checkbook goes. The ATM card goes. No more video rentals. The cellphone goes. Everything I e-mail out will be encrypted, though I expect that I'll use e-mail a lot less.
Sucks to live in a Republican America.
-Waldo Jaquith
ATI is a Canadian company, are they liable under UCITA?
Dmitry Sklyarov is a Russian guy. Is he liable under the DMCA?
-Waldo Jaquith
I like how their license agreement on the download page is in a text area in a form. I erased all of the text and wrote "ATI will give me one BILLION dollars," and submitted it. And they accepted it! Thanks to UCITA, that's valid, too. (I think. OTOH, who the hell can figure out UCITA?)
Ooh, I submitted it again and now they owe me a monkey. Pay up, ATI!
-Waldo Jaquith
running for office ? which state/county/town ?
/. ?
:) Perhaps a better question is why you're not running for office.
City Council in Charlottesville, VA, USA.
did you get elected ?
No, I fell three votes short.
why the heck are you on
I don't know how to answer that. Probably the same reasons that you are.
-Waldo Jaquith
This story smells extremely fishy. I don't think we know all that's going on here. Something doesn't add up.
If you've never been the victim of something like this, you're either a total newbie or a liar. The fact is that, when people achieve a certain level of prominence in the world, they're going to have a troll. I had my very own troll earlier this year when I was running for office. I'd bet cash money that this guy couldn't pick me out of a crowd of two, and posted 25 fraudulent, slanderous messages just because it was amusing. Hell, I might do the same thing if you caught me in the right mood. I suppose you could postulate that surely I must have done something to cause somebody to be a dick to me, but you'd be wrong.
The fact is that shit happens, whether or not you think that life works like that. Rather than buying into his troll's problems, perhaps you could offer some tips as to what he should be doing to fix this problem.
-Waldo Jaquith
I do all my tech work and writing under one name and I do all my psychic work and metaphysical writing under another name. According to the lawyer who instructed me, since I registered the name legally as an assumed name (in my city/place of business), I can use this name legally as if it were mine own. So far I've never had any trouble with it -- including accepting and cashing checks from clients.
;)
Why do you need an attorney? As a psychic, I would think you'd know if you would ever have any trouble with it.
-Waldo Jaquith
-Waldo Jaquith
GNUCash is arguably as good as Quicken.
This is more or less accurate. However, Quicken (like GNUCash) is worthless to most businesses, as it's a personal finance tool, not a corporate one.
-Waldo Jaquith
PHP has made a grep step forward
:)
With a slip-up like that, we know we're looking at a comment from a bona fide programmer here.
-Waldo Jaquith
If your state has a sales tax, you have always been resposible for paying taxes on out of stata purchases to your franchise board. under Use tax.
Wrong. Federal law protects out-of-state sellers from having to collect taxes for states in which they have no physical presence. When you order from some catalogs, they list a few states and say that, if you order from those states, you have to pay a sales tax. That's because they have employees, offices or property in that state, and thus they are compelled to pay that use tax. Short of that well-known exception, you're completely wrong.
-Waldo Jaquith
After years of disagreement, I no longer believe that Internet sales should be free of taxation as a class unto itself. I argued in the mid- to late-90s that the shipping cost was a barrier to the then dozen-or-so e-commerce sites, and we needed to not throw up more barriers to prevent the economic success of the Internet. The Internet has now had that development time, and I am no longer convinced that an exemption is necessary.
.com (and there are lots of them) would likely find having to file in so many different manners at different deadlines on different paperwork to be a significant problem.
My remaining concerns are not sufficient to convince me that Internet taxation should not occur, but they are significant. The biggest one is the logistical nightmare of paying sales taxes to 50 different states, should that be the nature of the changed laws. Though the software end of calculating the fees surely wouldn't be difficult, the average mom-and-pop
JM2C.
-Waldo Jaquith
"My brother was billed for over a year by a local Internet service provider via monthly withdrawals of ~$20 before he noticed."
:) I gather that a good part of the problem was the merging-of-finances that went along with getting married. It took them about a year to get everything in order, the savings and checking accounts, merging duplicate services, making one person in charge of all such things, etc. Part of the awkwardness of getting married. I'm told. :)
Sorry, if you don't look at the charges on your statement... well.. one month - I can agree - WTF are they doing? BASTARDS! But if you let it go for a year, well... sorry.
Well, that's pretty much what I told him.
-Waldo Jaquith
IF YOU ARE STUPID ENOUGH TO AUTHORIZE ANY COMPANY TO DIRECTLY WITHDRAWL / DEBIT MONEY FROM ANY OF YOUR ACCOUNTS THEN YOU GET WHAT YOU DESERVE
;)
That's a common misunderstanding. I know that it seems logical that there would be some sort of a cash-withdrawal authentication system but, amazingly, there's not. Anybody that wants to, via a bank transfer, withdraw any sum of cash from your account is free to. The burden of proof is on the consumer to prove that this is not a requirement.
I know this sounds crazy, and it took a while for me to be convinced, too. My brother was billed for over a year by a local Internet service provider via monthly withdrawals of ~$20 before he noticed. (He and his wife had just gotten married, and her employer's payroll company has the same name as the local ISP, and confusion reigned.) He went to our local bank to express his outrage, and left without satisfaction. I'm friends with pretty much ever employee at this local bank, so I went down to follow up. They explained this system to me as I have to you -- there's no authentication system whatsoever. There is currently no system in place at this particular bank to block such transfers, and they know of no such system in place at other banks. Truth be told, they regarded me as a little paranoid. But I get that a lot.
Giving a company permission to withdraw from your account certainly isn't helping the situation any, but it is in no way a requirement for them to rip you off. Anybody with one of your personal checks and a little know-how can do the same thing.
-Waldo Jaquith
Anybody that thinks that 5% of people read a EULA obviously gives a lot more credit to humanity than I do.
-Waldo Jaquith