A lot of computers that start with Windows end up being dismantled for parts, and the Windows licence gets moved to the new build. Case in point: I have three computers at home. I have six copies of Windows (3 retail plus an OEM 3-pack). The next three computers I buy will be naked, and by then one of the original three will have been dismantled, freeing up another license. There's a lot of uninstalled Windows disks floating around.
This was one of the major battles between our company and the parent corporation. We purchased Office at a serious discount when it came bundled with the computer. The parent wanted us to jump on their $300/year per seat for the Software Assurance bundle, while it was cheaper for us to buy all new machines with bundled software every three years than use Assurance. Every time they push the delivery dates back, it's more money down the drain.
I saw a position on Craigslist for an on-call IT support admin to maintain a company's 29 sites. The pay was $10/hour, and you used your own car. I took it as another sign telling me it's time to leave IT.
"What are the chances of googling for my IRL name and getting a hit which is actually me?"
I have a similar situation. I have a rather unique family name, but there is more than one of us with the same first name, and we're all in the same field. There are also a number of clowns who use my name as their handle, so Usenet is full of posts that may or may not have been from me, not to mention the threads where it appears I'm arguing with myself. Any attempt to do an large scale investigation is going to get bogged down in an infinite number of dead ends.
"I'm sorry, but only a fscking idiot would buy a house to get the mortgage deduction."
But most people aren't choosing between paying $15K in interest or putting $15K in savings (unless they're living in their parents' basement, of course). They're choosing between paying $15,000 a year in rent, or paying $15,000 a year in interest and getting $4500 back. In areas with high rents, the 28% interest deduction can make a major difference. My tax deduction effectively makes my mortgage payment less than the rent payment for the same house.
I have an operation like this. Six machines machine ripping, plus a server that collects all the files and burns the mp3 archive disks (and loads the iPod). Every now and them someone needs 500 CDs ripped and loaded in time for a birthday. (The next step is fitting them with turntables and audio processing software for converting LP collections.)
My last job put my cubicle in between the sales dept call center and the collections dept phone center. The volume level was so high I would go hide in the server room if I needed to actually work on anything. I've never seen an office that was so designed to prevent people from working.
Our company used offices to soothe and build egos. Sales insisted on window seats for their marketing drones, so veteren employees were pushed out of their window spots to interior cubicles as marketing hired new people. Offices were reserved for managers, so a dozen offices would sit empty while the IT and Accounting departments were crammed into the last few cubicles by the call centers. They would rather see the space go unused than someone with the wrong job title sitting in them. (You really knew your place in the company when they tell you to pack and move because the new intern wants your spot.)
"...no one with a sane mind would suggest using giant magnifiers against cows..."
I, for one, think this would be seriously cool. I can just see 2000 pounds of pissed-off steer with a singed butt chasing someone around the arena (and the 85-pound magnifying glass is bound to be slowing our contestant down).
"The current students did better than graduates in all areas of the test."
This could also be due to people turning off their brains once they're out of school. If they're not being tested on something, they feel it can be safely forgotten. I've seen people with multiple prestigious degrees that now act like they had trouble finishing high school. They can't spell or construct valid sentences in their memos, they can't add or subtract without a calculator, and many haven't opened a book of any kind since leaving school. I'd be curious to see how well these college students do if retested five or ten years after they graduate.
"And it's looking more like XP will be getting just 3 by the end of life period, now..."
If Microsoft drops support for XP Home at the end of 2006, will SP3 be for XP Pro only? For a lot of users, XP could effectively be finished right now, with just two packs. If MS pushes SP3 to 2007, then they can wash their hands entirely of XP Home. This will prevent home users from taking advantage of any new features in SP3 and drive them to Vista.
The ability to add post-incident internal expenses to a damage claim could have implications further down the line. After this ruling, the first thing any company should do in an incident is send $5000 to a consulting firm for an investigation (or simply assign high-paid internal people to the project until you reach $5K). Every incident, no matter how minor, now falls under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and is a cheap way to threaten jail time. The company will likely get reimbursed afterwards, anyway.
"if you are going to be destructive at least do it in an elegant and clever way"
Undocumented procedures can be very subtle, and every bit as damaging. New Year's Eve is a hell of time to figure out there's no instructions on how to run the annual tax reports. A missing step in the disaster recovery manual on how to rebuild the server can cause some very serious problems months or years later, as can neglecting to tell them that the auto-expire setting on the database also expires the admin accounts...
Security audits should be normal business procedures, especially when your're laying off IT staff. My company gets hit with two audits a year - one internal and one external - just as part of routine business. Terminated employee accounts are audited the next day, since it's expected that IT will begin purging accounts within minutes of the employee leaving. Foisting this off as an "expense" unique to this case seems slightly underhanded. As an auditor, I would take this to mean that security audits are *not* being performed on a regular basis, leading to even more questions about their SarBox compliance procedures.
There is extensive information on floating OTECs and making them economically profitable in _The Millennial Project_. One added issue is that deep-sea OTECs would bring deep nitrogen-rich water to the surface, making aquafarming a major industry in addition to energy production.
Vegetables were taxed, fruit was not. The complete text of the ruling:
U.S. Supreme Court NIX v. HEDDEN, 149 U.S. 304 (1893)
149 U.S. 304
NIX et al. v. HEDDEN, Collector. No. 137.
May 10, 1893
At law. Action by John Nix, John W. Nix, George W. Nix, and Frank W. Nix against Edward L. Hedden, collector of the port of New York, to recover back duties paid under protest. Judgment on verdict directed for defendant. 39 Fed. Rep. 109. Plaintiffs bring error. Affirmed.
Statement by Mr. Justice GRAY: This was an action brought February 4, 1887, against the collector of the port of New York to recover back duties paid under protest on tomatoes imported by the plaintiff from the West Indies in the spring of 1886, which the collector assessed under 'Schedule G.-Provisions,' of the tariff act of March 3, 1883, (chapter 121,) imposing a duty on 'vegetables in their natural state, or in salt or brine, not specially enumerated or provided for in this act, ten per centum ad valorem;' and which the plaintiffs contended came within the clause in the free list of the same act, 'Fruits, green, ripe, or dried, not specially enumerated or provided for in this act.' 22 Stat. 504, 519.
At the trial the plaintiff's counsel, after reading in evidence definitions of the words 'fruit' and 'vegetables' from Webster's Dictionary, Worcester's Dictionary, and the Imperial Dictionary, called two witnesses, who had been for 30 years in the business of selling fruit and vegetables, and asked them, after hearing these definitions, to say whether these words had 'any special meaning in trade or commerce, different from those read.'
One of the witnesses answered as follows: 'Well, it does not classify all things there, but they are correct as far as they go. It does not take all kinds of fruit or vegetables; it takes a portion of them. I think the words 'fruit' and 'vegetable' have the same meaning in trade to-day that they had on March 1, 1883. I understand that the term 'fruit' is applied in trade only to such plants or parts of plants as contain the seeds. There are more vegetables than those in the enumeration given in Webster's Dictionary under the term 'vegetable,' as 'cabbage, cauliflower, turnips, potatoes, peas, beans, and the like,' probably covered by the words 'and the like."
The other witness testified: 'I don't think the term 'fruit' or the term 'vegetables' had, in March, 1883, and prior thereto, any special meaning in trade and commerce in this country different from that which I have read here from the dictionaries.'
The plaintiff's counsel then read in evidence from the same dictionaries the definitions of the word 'tomato.' The defendant's counsel then read in evidence from Webster's Dictionary the definitions of the words 'pea,' 'egg plant,' 'cucumber,' 'squash,' and 'pepper.'
The plaintiff then read in evidence from Webster's and Worcester's dictionaries the definitions of 'potato,' 'turnip,' 'parsnip,' 'cauliflower,' 'cabbage,' 'carrot,' and 'bean.'
No other evidence was offered by either party. The court, upon the defendant's motion, directed a verdict for him, which was returned, and judgment rendered thereon. The plaintiffs duly excepted to the instruction, and sued out this writ of error.
Edwin B. Smith, for plaintiffs in error.
Justice GRAY, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.
The single question in this case is whether tomatoes, considered as provisions, are to be classed as 'vegetables' or as 'fruit,' within the meaning of the tariff act of 1883.
The only witnesses called at the trial testified that neither 'vegetables' nor 'fruit' had any special meaning in trade or commerce different from that given in the dictionaries, and that they had the same meaning in trade to-day that they had in March, 1883.
The passages cited from the dictionaries define the word 'fruit' as the seed of plaints, or that part of plaints which contains the seed, and especial
Tomatoes are vegetables, according to the U.S. Supreme Court (Nix vs Hedden, 1893). Vegetables are served with dinner, fruits are eaten for dessert. (This also allowed schools to count hamburger ketchup as a vegetable serving in school lunches.)
"Botanically speaking, tomatoes are the fruit of a vine, just as are cucumbers, squashes, beans, and peas. But in the common language of the people, whether sellers or consumers of provisions, all these are vegetables which are grown in kitchen gardens, and which, whether eaten cooked or raw, are, like potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, beets, cauliflower, cabbage, celery, and lettuce, usually served at dinner in, with, or after the soup, fish, or meats which constitute the principal part of the repast, and not, like fruits generally, as dessert."
"Never mind that planes have flown over hot deserts before..."
The problem is taking off, not staying airborne. The low pressure air means the plane needs to be going faster to generate enough lift to take off. Going faster means a longer takeoff run, and running out of pavement first can ruin your entire day.
"So, if Monsanto, et. al. want to own and control the GM crops - and the GM crops now spread to destructive speices, what do you think the odds are that the firms responsible for creating this mess will have any liability?"
Liability? You have Monsanto-patented plants on your property that you didn't pay for. Buried somewhere in a research lab is a patent filing for a GM dandelion, so pay up. The more pollen they can put in the air, the more money they make.
Slashdot Mirror
A lot of computers that start with Windows end up being dismantled for parts, and the Windows licence gets moved to the new build. Case in point: I have three computers at home. I have six copies of Windows (3 retail plus an OEM 3-pack). The next three computers I buy will be naked, and by then one of the original three will have been dismantled, freeing up another license. There's a lot of uninstalled Windows disks floating around.
Wise move to concede the pizza delivery technology category. Uncle Enzo takes great pride in his pizza delivery buys, know what I mean?
This was one of the major battles between our company and the parent corporation. We purchased Office at a serious discount when it came bundled with the computer. The parent wanted us to jump on their $300/year per seat for the Software Assurance bundle, while it was cheaper for us to buy all new machines with bundled software every three years than use Assurance. Every time they push the delivery dates back, it's more money down the drain.
I saw a position on Craigslist for an on-call IT support admin to maintain a company's 29 sites. The pay was $10/hour, and you used your own car. I took it as another sign telling me it's time to leave IT.
"What are the chances of googling for my IRL name and getting a hit which is actually me?"
I have a similar situation. I have a rather unique family name, but there is more than one of us with the same first name, and we're all in the same field. There are also a number of clowns who use my name as their handle, so Usenet is full of posts that may or may not have been from me, not to mention the threads where it appears I'm arguing with myself. Any attempt to do an large scale investigation is going to get bogged down in an infinite number of dead ends.
"I dunno, but I'm pretty sure it's been slashdotted:"
Security by popularity?
"I'm sorry, but only a fscking idiot would buy a house to get the mortgage deduction."
But most people aren't choosing between paying $15K in interest or putting $15K in savings (unless they're living in their parents' basement, of course). They're choosing between paying $15,000 a year in rent, or paying $15,000 a year in interest and getting $4500 back. In areas with high rents, the 28% interest deduction can make a major difference. My tax deduction effectively makes my mortgage payment less than the rent payment for the same house.
I have an operation like this. Six machines machine ripping, plus a server that collects all the files and burns the mp3 archive disks (and loads the iPod). Every now and them someone needs 500 CDs ripped and loaded in time for a birthday. (The next step is fitting them with turntables and audio processing software for converting LP collections.)
My last job put my cubicle in between the sales dept call center and the collections dept phone center. The volume level was so high I would go hide in the server room if I needed to actually work on anything. I've never seen an office that was so designed to prevent people from working.
Our company used offices to soothe and build egos. Sales insisted on window seats for their marketing drones, so veteren employees were pushed out of their window spots to interior cubicles as marketing hired new people. Offices were reserved for managers, so a dozen offices would sit empty while the IT and Accounting departments were crammed into the last few cubicles by the call centers. They would rather see the space go unused than someone with the wrong job title sitting in them. (You really knew your place in the company when they tell you to pack and move because the new intern wants your spot.)
"Many women have cells of their own, and from their mothers, and from their children..."
Don't give them another excuse for their psychotic mood swings. "That wasn't me, it was one of the kids..."
"...no one with a sane mind would suggest using giant magnifiers against cows..."
I, for one, think this would be seriously cool. I can just see 2000 pounds of pissed-off steer with a singed butt chasing someone around the arena (and the 85-pound magnifying glass is bound to be slowing our contestant down).
"Let's just call it by its proper name: THEFT."
But "piracy" has a much better ring to it.
"The current students did better than graduates in all areas of the test."
This could also be due to people turning off their brains once they're out of school. If they're not being tested on something, they feel it can be safely forgotten. I've seen people with multiple prestigious degrees that now act like they had trouble finishing high school. They can't spell or construct valid sentences in their memos, they can't add or subtract without a calculator, and many haven't opened a book of any kind since leaving school. I'd be curious to see how well these college students do if retested five or ten years after they graduate.
"And it's looking more like XP will be getting just 3 by the end of life period, now..."
If Microsoft drops support for XP Home at the end of 2006, will SP3 be for XP Pro only? For a lot of users, XP could effectively be finished right now, with just two packs. If MS pushes SP3 to 2007, then they can wash their hands entirely of XP Home. This will prevent home users from taking advantage of any new features in SP3 and drive them to Vista.
The ability to add post-incident internal expenses to a damage claim could have implications further down the line. After this ruling, the first thing any company should do in an incident is send $5000 to a consulting firm for an investigation (or simply assign high-paid internal people to the project until you reach $5K). Every incident, no matter how minor, now falls under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and is a cheap way to threaten jail time. The company will likely get reimbursed afterwards, anyway.
"if you are going to be destructive at least do it in an elegant and clever way"
Undocumented procedures can be very subtle, and every bit as damaging. New Year's Eve is a hell of time to figure out there's no instructions on how to run the annual tax reports. A missing step in the disaster recovery manual on how to rebuild the server can cause some very serious problems months or years later, as can neglecting to tell them that the auto-expire setting on the database also expires the admin accounts...
Security audits should be normal business procedures, especially when your're laying off IT staff. My company gets hit with two audits a year - one internal and one external - just as part of routine business. Terminated employee accounts are audited the next day, since it's expected that IT will begin purging accounts within minutes of the employee leaving. Foisting this off as an "expense" unique to this case seems slightly underhanded. As an auditor, I would take this to mean that security audits are *not* being performed on a regular basis, leading to even more questions about their SarBox compliance procedures.
"If you have some of the same problems dealing with things as Ellen..."
So many punchlines, so little time...
There is extensive information on floating OTECs and making them economically profitable in _The Millennial Project_. One added issue is that deep-sea OTECs would bring deep nitrogen-rich water to the surface, making aquafarming a major industry in addition to energy production.
7 94637-7945626
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316771635/002-8
Married.
I let the Church handle values of pi. If God says it's 3, then that's good enough for me.
Vegetables were taxed, fruit was not. The complete text of the ruling:
U.S. Supreme Court
NIX v. HEDDEN, 149 U.S. 304 (1893)
149 U.S. 304
NIX et al.
v.
HEDDEN, Collector.
No. 137.
May 10, 1893
At law. Action by John Nix, John W. Nix, George W. Nix, and Frank W. Nix against Edward L. Hedden, collector of the port of New York, to recover back duties paid under protest. Judgment on verdict directed for defendant. 39 Fed. Rep. 109. Plaintiffs bring error. Affirmed.
Statement by Mr. Justice GRAY: This was an action brought February 4, 1887, against the collector of the port of New York to recover back duties paid under protest on tomatoes imported by the plaintiff from the West Indies in the spring of 1886, which the collector assessed under 'Schedule G.-Provisions,' of the tariff act of March 3, 1883, (chapter 121,) imposing a duty on 'vegetables in their natural state, or in salt or brine, not specially enumerated or provided for in this act, ten per centum ad valorem;' and which the plaintiffs contended came within the clause in the free list of the same act, 'Fruits, green, ripe, or dried, not specially enumerated or provided for in this act.' 22 Stat. 504, 519.
At the trial the plaintiff's counsel, after reading in evidence definitions of the words 'fruit' and 'vegetables' from Webster's Dictionary, Worcester's Dictionary, and the Imperial Dictionary, called two witnesses, who had been for 30 years in the business of selling fruit and vegetables, and asked them, after hearing these definitions, to say whether these words had 'any special meaning in trade or commerce, different from those read.'
One of the witnesses answered as follows: 'Well, it does not classify all things there, but they are correct as far as they go. It does not take all kinds of fruit or vegetables; it takes a portion of them. I think the words 'fruit' and 'vegetable' have the same meaning in trade to-day that they had on March 1, 1883. I understand that the term 'fruit' is applied in trade only to such plants or parts of plants as contain the seeds. There are more vegetables than those in the enumeration given in Webster's Dictionary under the term 'vegetable,' as 'cabbage, cauliflower, turnips, potatoes, peas, beans, and the like,' probably covered by the words 'and the like."
The other witness testified: 'I don't think the term 'fruit' or the term 'vegetables' had, in March, 1883, and prior thereto, any special meaning in trade and commerce in this country different from that which I have read here from the dictionaries.'
The plaintiff's counsel then read in evidence from the same dictionaries the definitions of the word 'tomato.' The defendant's counsel then read in evidence from Webster's Dictionary the definitions of the words 'pea,' 'egg plant,' 'cucumber,' 'squash,' and 'pepper.'
The plaintiff then read in evidence from Webster's and Worcester's dictionaries the definitions of 'potato,' 'turnip,' 'parsnip,' 'cauliflower,' 'cabbage,' 'carrot,' and 'bean.'
No other evidence was offered by either party. The court, upon the defendant's motion, directed a verdict for him, which was returned, and judgment rendered thereon. The plaintiffs duly excepted to the instruction, and sued out this writ of error.
Edwin B. Smith, for plaintiffs in error.
Justice GRAY, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.
The single question in this case is whether tomatoes, considered as provisions, are to be classed as 'vegetables' or as 'fruit,' within the meaning of the tariff act of 1883.
The only witnesses called at the trial testified that neither 'vegetables' nor 'fruit' had any special meaning in trade or commerce different from that given in the dictionaries, and that they had the same meaning in trade to-day that they had in March, 1883.
The passages cited from the dictionaries define the word 'fruit' as the seed of plaints, or that part of plaints which contains the seed, and especial
Tomatoes are vegetables, according to the U.S. Supreme Court (Nix vs Hedden, 1893). Vegetables are served with dinner, fruits are eaten for dessert. (This also allowed schools to count hamburger ketchup as a vegetable serving in school lunches.)
"Botanically speaking, tomatoes are the fruit of a vine, just as are cucumbers, squashes, beans, and peas. But in the common language of the people, whether sellers or consumers of provisions, all these are vegetables which are grown in kitchen gardens, and which, whether eaten cooked or raw, are, like potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, beets, cauliflower, cabbage, celery, and lettuce, usually served at dinner in, with, or after the soup, fish, or meats which constitute the principal part of the repast, and not, like fruits generally, as dessert."
"Never mind that planes have flown over hot deserts before..."
The problem is taking off, not staying airborne. The low pressure air means the plane needs to be going faster to generate enough lift to take off. Going faster means a longer takeoff run, and running out of pavement first can ruin your entire day.
"So, if Monsanto, et. al. want to own and control the GM crops - and the GM crops now spread to destructive speices, what do you think the odds are that the firms responsible for creating this mess will have any liability?"
Liability? You have Monsanto-patented plants on your property that you didn't pay for. Buried somewhere in a research lab is a patent filing for a GM dandelion, so pay up. The more pollen they can put in the air, the more money they make.