Try "Lack of Cooperative Multiplayer". Sure, they had it on consoles. But they asserted to the press that PC gamers only played FPS games to kill their friends, not to engage the monsters (and any story-line, however thin) with the assistance of their friends.
They lost a lot of fans that day. I, for one, am a PC gamer who enjoys cooperative play with friends far more than deathmatches against them. Partly by choice, partly because they still remember the way I booby-trapped a hallway in Half Life and refuse to play deathmatch with me anymore...;P
Now someone just needs to convince Google to publish the API for the flight simulator so that mod authors can go in and add support for entirely different types of aircraft. Sopwith Camels, P-51 Mustangs, Protoss carriers, Colonial Vipers, Sovereign class starships and Firefly class transports.
I once had a bank (BB&T) charge overdraft fees on an account because, as they said, "We thought you *might* overdraw your account." Please note that after all outstanding charges and fees had cleared, I still had a positive balance. It was just significantly lower than it should have been, but did not drop below a magic 'minimum balance' ceiling. The same bank also started charging overdraft fees on Direct Deposits made to my account.
So, to answer one poster, yes, banks in the US do regularly make off with peoples' money. They do it through computer error, stubbornness and/or an inability of their employees to understand the seriousness of said errors (one such bank employee called me at work to scream, yes scream, at me and tell me the overdraft charges were the direct result of my inability to understand basic math - she no longer works at that bank).
I did, however, get my money back. I sent a letter to the bank explaining to them the nature of their error, showing them the balance sheets in full, and demanding the immediate return of my funds by a specific (and short) deadline. I threatened to get several federal agencies and state attorneys general involved if my demands were not met. Not only did I receive my money a day before the deadline, but they sent me several free gifts as an apology.
They made a similar mistake months later, long after the account had been closed. They deposited $100 in the account, reopening it in my name w/o my permission, in order to charge me a $5 inactivity service fee. I went to a local branch, demanded the sum in my account, and showed them the letters stating that the bank had closed my account months prior as per my request. I told them the money was in my name and I would be taking it now. Any attempt to stop me or recover the funds they had illegally opened my account with would result in the involvement of several federal agencies which govern who can, or cannot, open a bank account in someone else's name.
They quite happily handed me the $95 and very quickly shut up about it.
Microsoft(tm) Windows(tm), now more Massive(tm) than ever.
I love the rest of the system recommendations, too. "GPU 3x faster than anything on the market today" is a cute one. Almost as good as "dual core 6ghz CPU".
Lawyers who are found to be consistently engaged in the practice of barratry have been disbarred in the past. There's precedent.
Of course, the problem is that whomever gets tapped to step up and take his place might not be insane, but could easily be as big a zealot for the anti-games crusade. That could be a problem. Gabe & Tycho mentioned this in their posts, I believe.
Having dealt with banks (and other industries) in the US many times in the past, I'd like to point out that the average bank has a limited IT department, and the people working there tend to be below par by Slashdot standards. Again, I'm talking about averages here, so keep the "i wok at bank weth fiv otur giys wee al expirts!!1!" flames to yourself.
That said, it's important to remember that they're not going to actually read any explanations you attach to anything you send them. What they will do is look over the attachments, make their own determination as to what happened, and go tearing off in a random direction, convinced of the righteousness of their crusade.
So how do you notify them of the phisher without being bitten yourself? Complain about phishing emails coming from the address in question. Don't mention a website. Certainly don't mention your own server. Is this dishonest? Yes, technically. But if you're competent and you know they're not (or at the very least suspect they're not) it's more a case of tailoring the information to suit the audience. You don't explain moral values and arguments to a guard dog, you simply point at the intruder and tell the dog to "sic 'em!".
There are other US industries to be wary of, with regards to IT: insurance, legal offices, professional medical offices (hospitals, doctors, dentists, chiropractors, etc). The smaller offices tend not to know what's going on, the larger ones tend to push everything off on an IT department that's entirely too small for its own good (and may be staffed with less than the best), and they all tend to make demands that don't coincide with consensual reality.
Why is it like ths? From what I've seen it's a matter of not having IT people, or letting someone who doesn't understand what's needed do the hiring. They end up with a lot of paper tigers, or worse. I remember one insurance office that had hired an agent's neighbor - a 13 year old self-proclaimed 'firewall expert'. It took me two weeks and nearly $1000 of their money to sort out the mistakes he'd made (and find/remove all the snoopers he'd left behind).
In a nutshell, try not to use big words when dealing with US banks, and only give them the information they need to point them in the right direction. While your mileage may vary, it's a good practice, because it will protect you.
I'm sorry, but I don't have any advice on how to recover your losses with regards to the actions the bank took.
The EAS systems in use by most retailers use a small security tag composed of two magnetized metal strips inside a plastic package. Contrary to popular opinion the following items will not set off the alarms:
steel-toe boots
cellphones
magnets
digital watches
eel-skin wallets
(Note: Eel-skin wallets aren't made from the skin of eels, they're made from the skin of hagfish.)
What will set the system off are any of the following:
security tags in product
security tags stuck to soles of shoes
security tags stuck in shoes/purses/wallets by the manufacturer
certain celestial alignments
the 'wee folk'
The alarm system I have at my store goes off most often when someone is coming in from the mall. Typically they've purchased something from a retailer who doesn't use the system, and the manufacturer ever so helpfully stuck a tag in the box before shipping it to the retailer. Cellphone kiosks, Radio Shack and Sears are the biggest offenders (they're not doing anything wrong, the manufacturers are just being too helpful). Outgoing alarms are less frequent, and are usually caused by a failure of the equipment to collapse a tag properly.
How do we handle it? Each employee has been instructed to handle an alarm in the exact same fashion. On an incoming alarm, we ask the customer to come to the register and explain that something they bought somewhere else wasn't handled properly. We make sure everyone can hear as we explain that it happens all the time, and we're helping them out by making sure the alarms don't go off in other stores as they continue to shop. I've only ever seen one customer refuse or get upset about this.
On an outgoing alarm we laugh and apologize for what obviously was our error. We screwed that one up, it must be our fault, because there's no way we'll consider that someone might be stealing from us. Of course we don't say it this way, but that's the image we project. You'd be shocked at how quickly a thief will confess or, more often, dump whatever they've stolen behind them somewhere, when you respond to the alarm.
The big thing we do is respond to the alarm. We don't ever embarass our customers (or the visitors who didn't buy). If there's any doubt or people don't want to stop, we let them go. A real shoplifter will dump the product, confess, or take off running.
Of course, this has given rise to what I tell customers as they're leaving: "Thanks for coming by. I deactivated the security tag, so the alarm shouldn't go off as you're leaving. But if it does, do what everyone else does... just run."
My customers love me. I have no idea why. I've gotten standing ovations from them. Weird.
Onion! I want to see/. reporting on Onion stories next.:)
As an aside, this bit: "All the money I make from selling occult items to unsaved gamers, I auction off on E-bay for real cash...", if any of this were true (which it isn't), would be a violation of Bnet TOS and would get little Billy's account suspended post-haste. Heh.
Slashdot Mirror
Try "Lack of Cooperative Multiplayer". Sure, they had it on consoles. But they asserted to the press that PC gamers only played FPS games to kill their friends, not to engage the monsters (and any story-line, however thin) with the assistance of their friends.
They lost a lot of fans that day. I, for one, am a PC gamer who enjoys cooperative play with friends far more than deathmatches against them. Partly by choice, partly because they still remember the way I booby-trapped a hallway in Half Life and refuse to play deathmatch with me anymore... ;P
Now someone just needs to convince Google to publish the API for the flight simulator so that mod authors can go in and add support for entirely different types of aircraft. Sopwith Camels, P-51 Mustangs, Protoss carriers, Colonial Vipers, Sovereign class starships and Firefly class transports.
Because you *KNOW* it would happen.
I once had a bank (BB&T) charge overdraft fees on an account because, as they said, "We thought you *might* overdraw your account." Please note that after all outstanding charges and fees had cleared, I still had a positive balance. It was just significantly lower than it should have been, but did not drop below a magic 'minimum balance' ceiling. The same bank also started charging overdraft fees on Direct Deposits made to my account.
So, to answer one poster, yes, banks in the US do regularly make off with peoples' money. They do it through computer error, stubbornness and/or an inability of their employees to understand the seriousness of said errors (one such bank employee called me at work to scream, yes scream, at me and tell me the overdraft charges were the direct result of my inability to understand basic math - she no longer works at that bank).
I did, however, get my money back. I sent a letter to the bank explaining to them the nature of their error, showing them the balance sheets in full, and demanding the immediate return of my funds by a specific (and short) deadline. I threatened to get several federal agencies and state attorneys general involved if my demands were not met. Not only did I receive my money a day before the deadline, but they sent me several free gifts as an apology.
They made a similar mistake months later, long after the account had been closed. They deposited $100 in the account, reopening it in my name w/o my permission, in order to charge me a $5 inactivity service fee. I went to a local branch, demanded the sum in my account, and showed them the letters stating that the bank had closed my account months prior as per my request. I told them the money was in my name and I would be taking it now. Any attempt to stop me or recover the funds they had illegally opened my account with would result in the involvement of several federal agencies which govern who can, or cannot, open a bank account in someone else's name.
They quite happily handed me the $95 and very quickly shut up about it.
Microsoft(tm) Windows(tm), now more Massive(tm) than ever.
I love the rest of the system recommendations, too. "GPU 3x faster than anything on the market today" is a cute one. Almost as good as "dual core 6ghz CPU".
Lawyers who are found to be consistently engaged in the practice of barratry have been disbarred in the past. There's precedent. Of course, the problem is that whomever gets tapped to step up and take his place might not be insane, but could easily be as big a zealot for the anti-games crusade. That could be a problem. Gabe & Tycho mentioned this in their posts, I believe.
Having dealt with banks (and other industries) in the US many times in the past, I'd like to point out that the average bank has a limited IT department, and the people working there tend to be below par by Slashdot standards. Again, I'm talking about averages here, so keep the "i wok at bank weth fiv otur giys wee al expirts!!1!" flames to yourself.
That said, it's important to remember that they're not going to actually read any explanations you attach to anything you send them. What they will do is look over the attachments, make their own determination as to what happened, and go tearing off in a random direction, convinced of the righteousness of their crusade.
So how do you notify them of the phisher without being bitten yourself? Complain about phishing emails coming from the address in question. Don't mention a website. Certainly don't mention your own server. Is this dishonest? Yes, technically. But if you're competent and you know they're not (or at the very least suspect they're not) it's more a case of tailoring the information to suit the audience. You don't explain moral values and arguments to a guard dog, you simply point at the intruder and tell the dog to "sic 'em!".
There are other US industries to be wary of, with regards to IT: insurance, legal offices, professional medical offices (hospitals, doctors, dentists, chiropractors, etc). The smaller offices tend not to know what's going on, the larger ones tend to push everything off on an IT department that's entirely too small for its own good (and may be staffed with less than the best), and they all tend to make demands that don't coincide with consensual reality.
Why is it like ths? From what I've seen it's a matter of not having IT people, or letting someone who doesn't understand what's needed do the hiring. They end up with a lot of paper tigers, or worse. I remember one insurance office that had hired an agent's neighbor - a 13 year old self-proclaimed 'firewall expert'. It took me two weeks and nearly $1000 of their money to sort out the mistakes he'd made (and find/remove all the snoopers he'd left behind).
In a nutshell, try not to use big words when dealing with US banks, and only give them the information they need to point them in the right direction. While your mileage may vary, it's a good practice, because it will protect you.
I'm sorry, but I don't have any advice on how to recover your losses with regards to the actions the bank took.
- steel-toe boots
- cellphones
- magnets
- digital watches
- eel-skin wallets
(Note: Eel-skin wallets aren't made from the skin of eels, they're made from the skin of hagfish.)What will set the system off are any of the following:
The alarm system I have at my store goes off most often when someone is coming in from the mall. Typically they've purchased something from a retailer who doesn't use the system, and the manufacturer ever so helpfully stuck a tag in the box before shipping it to the retailer. Cellphone kiosks, Radio Shack and Sears are the biggest offenders (they're not doing anything wrong, the manufacturers are just being too helpful). Outgoing alarms are less frequent, and are usually caused by a failure of the equipment to collapse a tag properly.
How do we handle it? Each employee has been instructed to handle an alarm in the exact same fashion. On an incoming alarm, we ask the customer to come to the register and explain that something they bought somewhere else wasn't handled properly. We make sure everyone can hear as we explain that it happens all the time, and we're helping them out by making sure the alarms don't go off in other stores as they continue to shop. I've only ever seen one customer refuse or get upset about this.
On an outgoing alarm we laugh and apologize for what obviously was our error. We screwed that one up, it must be our fault, because there's no way we'll consider that someone might be stealing from us. Of course we don't say it this way, but that's the image we project. You'd be shocked at how quickly a thief will confess or, more often, dump whatever they've stolen behind them somewhere, when you respond to the alarm.
The big thing we do is respond to the alarm. We don't ever embarass our customers (or the visitors who didn't buy). If there's any doubt or people don't want to stop, we let them go. A real shoplifter will dump the product, confess, or take off running.
Of course, this has given rise to what I tell customers as they're leaving: "Thanks for coming by. I deactivated the security tag, so the alarm shouldn't go off as you're leaving. But if it does, do what everyone else does ... just run."
My customers love me. I have no idea why. I've gotten standing ovations from them. Weird.
Onion! I want to see /. reporting on Onion stories next. :)
As an aside, this bit: "All the money I make from selling occult items to unsaved gamers, I auction off on E-bay for real cash...", if any of this were true (which it isn't), would be a violation of Bnet TOS and would get little Billy's account suspended post-haste. Heh.