Those in rural areas, for the most part. I have family in a small town about 30 minutes south of Dallas (which isn't all that rural) and they have no available cable service and baling wire phone lines that can barely handle dialup. Satellite service is available, but as others have pointed out satellite and VOIP don't get along well due to the lag of sending a signal to space and back. My Sprint laptop card works somewhat but the signal isn't very strong.
I've used VOIP for years at both my business and my house - but we still have a landline. Just a few other roadblocks we ran into that weren't mentioned:
faxing is unreliable. Yes, businesses should migrate into the 21st century and ditch the fax machine, but MANY businesses (including many of my suppliers) still rely on the fax for their daily operations. We've gotten around that by using a fax-to-email service, but that's sometimes a pain to deal with.
credit card machines are similar (also using a modem). Again, move into the 21st century and use an IP connection instead, but change is hard. Many businesses are still using their 20 year old credit card machine, and until you phase those out you'll still need a landline.
security systems apparently don't work well without a landline - I don't know the mechanics of it but I suspect it's similar.
The biggest issue - VOIP is simply not reliable. POTS lines are required by federal regulations to have a certain uptime, VOIP lines are not. If your VOIP provider goes down in the middle of a business day you have no recourse other than perhaps an SLA agreement with them. We use several and they're generally very reliable, but not to the standard of the good old copper line.
I love the flexibility I get with VOIP, I can work from anywhere with a decent internet connection and have all kinds of routing options through my Asterisk server, but we still have our incoming calls defaulting to a POTS line that runs into the Asterisk box. VOIP is constantly gaining ground but it's not there yet.
Have you listened to the 911 call? I have - the caller did not mention race until the 911 operator asked her. When asked, she replied "one looked kind of Hispanic but I'm not really sure." This hardly jives with your idea that she was "some busybody neighbor doesn't like your skin color living on her street."
Agreed, the situation could have been handled much better on both sides. Personally from what I've read I think Gates was just being a twit and the cop didn't do much to help the situation. Before you spew racial vitriol all over the internets, get your facts straight.
This story seems to imply that the "man in a white van" was some pedophile or serial killer or whatever.
But there is a 99% or more chance that in fact he was the kid's father, or uncle or something, and that this incident was related to some family drama about child custody or the like.
True, but there's a 99% chance if the mysterious man WAS in fact a relative, he did not have the legal right to take the child. If he DID have the right, and he knew where the child was, there would have been no need to pull up in a van and kidnap the kid when he could have had the courts/police do the same thing.
Yes, I'm aware that our legal system is messed up and takes forever to process such things. However, since we're talking made-up statistics, there's a 99% chance that the man would still face significant consequences for his actions even if he was simply taking the law into his own hands to take the kid back while the police muddled through the paperwork and red tape.
My wife taught elementary school for many years. It was all too common that kids would get "lost" in the bus system.
Consider:
you're dealing with kids as young as 4
the child's classroom teacher may or may not be the one to take the child to the bus. Teachers generally divide up the duties, one will take bus kids to the bus lane, another takes kids to the parent pickup lane, another takes kids to the side door if they're walking home. Especially with a new batch of kids it's hard to keep up with who's who.
dismissal is a circus
bus drivers take days off
buses break down, are gone on field trips, etc so it's not always the same bus
kids don't pay attention - if the bus changes and they announce it over the PA, the kid will forget by the time he gets outside
kids lie - "my mommy said to go home with Johnny today!"
parents change how their kid gets home - maybe yesterday Mom picked him up, today she has to work late so he rides the bus, tomorrow he IS going home with Johnny
you're dealing with kids as young as 4
Especially at the start of the school year, this is not at all uncommon. Parents panic, and justifiably so, but the kid is usually found pretty quick when the bus driver finds an extra child on the bus at the end of the route. I wouldn't say it's an everyday occurrence but definitely a few times each year.
Unlike the limiter that you describe, this system adapts to different roads. With a basic limiter I can still drive 70 km/h in a residential neighborhood where the limit is (for example) 30 km/h. Using the system described in the article, the GPS would recognize that I am in a residential neighborhood and limit my speed appropriately.
It's well known that you can take pictures of (just about) anything you want that's visible from a public place and then publish the photos without any copyright issues. However, no respectable photojournalist would take such gory pictures, and if he did no respectable news outlet would purchase them or even consider publishing them. Pictures of the smashed car, maybe. Pictures of the smashed head, no.
By "significant public value" I assume you mean educational value - "look what happens when you act stupid." That's certainly arguable, but doesn't require personal identification of the girl behind the wheel to be effective.
Unfortunately the line between the Guard and the US military is very blurry and becoming moreso every day. A large number of the troops currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan are National Guard. When I deployed back in 2005 for hurricane relief (after Katrina+Rita) we were on state orders for a few days, but it wasn't long before the federal government picked up the tab (which meant a few extra benefits for us). The various state National Guard budgets receive quite a bit of money from the Federal budget every year and report to the National Guard Bureau.
Not to turn this into a gun control discussion, but I don't think that today's version of the National Guard is really what the founding fathers had in mind as a "well-regulated militia." There are many varying interpretations of that bit of text, but none describe a branch of the military funded and controlled (albeit remotely) by the Federal government.
Unless one lives in an English speaking country outright, school is never going to be sufficient to learn a workable English—there is simply not enough time for practice. That's valid for English and any other language.
Agree completely.
Many of my friends have had classes in Spanish either in high school or college. During my high school and college years I spent a lot of time waiting tables at various restaurants. The kitchen staff and bussers were almost invariably Hispanic, mostly immigrants from Mexico or South America. Later I spent a year managing a warehouse where many of the employees were immigrants. I learned quite a bit of Spanish language from them - especially words about food, boxes, trucks and profanity. While my friends can conjugate verbs and correct my Spanish grammar, I can actually communicate with Spanish-only individuals.
Actually, Americans are more likely to tell you that you need to speak English. I can't think of a single store in America where someone's going to try to find you a translator; most people simply don't have time for that level of customer service.
I live in Texas, north of Dallas but south of Oklahoma. We have a pretty big population of immigrants from central and south America. Many times the first generation speaks very little, if any, English. As a result many businesses and stores will have someone on staff who can speak Spanish and communicate with those customers. Many government forms are translated into Spanish. When my wife taught public school, every time she had to send a note home to her class she sent it in both English and Spanish (the receptionist translated). Most of the kids could speak English but often their parents could not. While I can speak a little bit, when I ran my retail store I made a point to have a fluent Spanish speaker on staff. I know that we got several sales from Spanish-speaking customers that most likely would have fallen through if we had to rely on my minimal Spanish vocabulary. At the moment I'm job-hunting and there are many, many jobs out there specifically looking for someone bi-lingual.
Other parts of the country may well be different, but in this area it's par for the course. Some businesses will, out of principle, refuse to translate anything or have a translator on staff. In most cases it's just good business sense to have at least some capability.
With other languages it's a crapshoot. We had some German customers in the store once who were vacationing. I had no way to translate for them, but I think unless you are in a business that deals with tourists from overseas on a regular basis then there's not much reason (from a strictly business perspective) to cater to that.
Several years ago I worked as a waiter at Pappadeaux seafood restaurant in Dallas. During some parts of the year we sold crawfish. They arrived at the restaurant frozen in big plastic bins. Before cooking them, we would pull the bins out of the freezer for a while to let them thaw out (apparently it tasted better that way).
Even though the critters had been frozen for quite some time (I assume several days, at least as long as it takes to get from Louisiana to Dallas, plus a day or two in our freezer) once they thawed out they would begin to move and respond to basic stimuli. At that point it wasn't long before they were thrown into boiling water, but at least for a short time they were alive, walking and clawing at anything they could get hold of including each other. It was a favorite trick of one manager to hide a defrosted crawfish in the bins of kale that we used as garnish on all the plates. Quite the surprise when you reach for a bit of greenery and get pinched by a crustacean.
Now, do they feel pain? I never made any attempt to find out. However, the freezer treatment didn't kill them.
I had a teacher do that to me once in high school compsci. She startled me so much that I jumped up and knocked her over the next row of desks. Not bright for the 5'2 100lb teacher to do that to the 6' 190lb student, eh? Though I fell asleep in that class many times after that, she never again woke me up in that same manner.
Unfortunately, many password systems will reject those passwords. I used to use a similar system, but started seeing errors about "your new password cannot use more than x characters from your old password." This of course means that they're saving my old passwords in plaintext or reversible encryption, which is a security risk in itself.
My most recent scheme is to use a pattern on the keyboard (yay for muscle memory). Usually I'll do the pattern once, then hold shift and do the same pattern. This gives you upper and lower case, and if you include a number or two it gives you numbers and punctuation. As long as your pattern is 5 characters long you'll pass 99% of the password rules out there (5 keys, hold shift then the same 5 keys makes 10 digits). When the time comes to change your password, shift the pattern one key to the left or right. This way I can at least guess my password in a few tries if I have to.
My fallback is this: http://gnukeyring.sourceforge.net/
Stores the passwords on my palm pilot, encrypted. As long as I remember my decryption password and don't lose my palm pilot, I'm golden.
Dude, you're at the wrong bank. Between business and personal accounts I've banked with a half-dozen different places and don't remember one that would screw me the way you've described.
I DO take issue with one local bank, in that they always post the withdrawals for the day in descending order by amount. One day this resulted in 7 overdrafts, when it would have been only 1 if they had posted the debits in reverse order. However, that same bank ALWAYS posts deposits first, then withdrawals. If I go on a shopping spree over the weekend, spending more than what's in my checking account, as long as I make a deposit by 3 PM Monday everything is fine.
The other place where I currently do business is a credit union. They post transactions in real time throughout the day. That includes deposits - if I know a bill is coming that will overdraw my account, I make a deposit before it hits and I'm good to go.
Banks are definitely out there to hit you with as many fees as they can. They are, after all, for-profit businesses. As long as you learn the system and play by the rules you shouldn't get hit with many.
Based on the scenario you describe, the only way I can see that it would work out the way you describe is if the bank is not crediting your deposits to your account immediately. If your bank is doing that to you on a $200 deposit then you need a new bank. I've had money held before on larger checks (several thousand, or more than a few hundred from out of state individuals) but never $200. Even when the deposits were held it was never more than a day or two.
Theoretically once you fill out the paper at one bar you're good to go anywhere that takes Unicard. Unfortunately lots of places don't upload their data in a timely manner (or sometimes not at all) so you may have to do it several times before you're in the system.
FWIW, most of my table-waiting experience was also in Denton County. I also spent some time working in nearby cities Arlington and Dallas (Tarrant and Dallas counties, respectively), neither of which had the Unicard hassle at the time.
In Texas, cities can decide to be wet or dry. In a "dry" city, a restaurant that serves alcohol must be a "private club." It's not so much a "private club" in that there are significant membership requirements, anyone can join if they're of age and there's no membership fee or ongoing responsibilities. I'm sure it's just another way for the city to tax the restaurant - how much does it cost to get a "private club" permit?
So if you're eating out and you want to have a beer, you must present a club membership card. Most restaurants have signed up with a company called Unicard. If you sign up at one Unicard restaurant...er..."private club" then you are automatically a member everywhere that takes Unicard. Years ago you actually got a separate membership card. Now it's associated with your driver's license number. When I was waiting tables the computer would refuse to let me input a drink order until I swiped a customer's Unicard (or driver's license). I'm sure that the computer was checking with the Unicard database to make sure that the person was actually a member. Was it tracking them? I have no idea. Probably so, in case the restaurant needed to look back and prove that a certain customer was in fact a member of the club when they bought that drink. Aside from the inherent lawsuit risks of serving alcohol, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is known for being ruthless and handing down VERY expensive fines to the restaurant and the waiter for any infraction.
A significant difference here is that Unicard is a private company, not a government entity. I'm sure they'll be quick to share their database if asked by a court, especially if it involves "terrists" or kiddie porn.
Disclaimer: IANAW (any more). I haven't waited tables for several years and I rarely drink when I'm out. Things may be different now.
I think you're confusing Samba with Sambo. Last I checked, Samba usually refers to a dance and/or musical style from Latin America (specifically Brazil, I believe). Sambo, on the other hand, is a racial slur indicating mixed race and also the title character of a children's book called Little Black Sambo. Whether the book or the slur came first is up for debate.
The thing I like about open source is that everyone can make the software better. Why a company wouldn't want to produce source code, is beyond me. I think they fear that they will be viewed as incompetent when several mistakes are found in their code, or that sneaky randomizer function call rears its ugly head.
It's not that hard to understand, really. The Intoxilyzer folks are more concerned with making (more) money than they are with making the world a better place, writing better code or producing a better breathalyzer.
Most open-source software authors produce code because they LIKE it. Maybe they get warm fuzzies out of making the world better with their application, more likely they just like writing code. Only a very small percentage actually make money at writing open source code - and most of that income comes from either customized versions of their software or from selling related hardware and support services.
Most software companies (including companies such as this one that sell hardware with embedded custom soft/firmware) produce code to make money. If they release the code as open source, someone else can take it and produce a similar product that functions the same and costs less. Yes, you can put licensing restrictions in that prevent that, but those restrictions are very rarely enforced. Unless you patent your methods (a whole other can of worms) someone can take your methods, re-write the code differently and release it with no legal ramifications whatsoever.
Basically, open-sourcing your code allows others to capitalize on the time you spent in R&D. The open source movement considers this a good thing. Most commercial software companies consider it a bad thing. There's room for both in the world.
If you go down to the retail sheet music store and buy a piece of sheet music, you are legally not allowed to photocopy that sheet music any more than you're legally allowed to copy a CD or downloaded MP3 or any other book for that matter.
Note, I said "not...any more than...a CD or downloaded MP3." Yes, fair use applies to sheet music just as it applies to CDs and MP3s. Archive, quote it for educational purposes, sure. While I'm not familiar with the intimate details of the fair use doctrine, I've seen plenty of copyright violations that would certainly not be included - band directors photocopying entire arrangements from their buddies' libraries, choir directors purchasing one copy of a part and making 100 copies for their students, bands making (and selling) recordings of other people's music without obtaining the proper rights. I've played several professional engagements where I was handed photocopies of the original parts because the venue couldn't/wouldn't spend the money on the parts but instead copied them from somewhere else. On multiple occasions I've been handed a "listening CD" before a gig to help me learn the music. You could argue that last one as fair use because it's for educational purposes but it's questionable to say the least.
I'm aware that there are many cases where photocopies would be the only solution. Music goes out of print, sometimes you need a part RIGHT NOW because someone left it at home before the gig. If a student loses the third page of his part and the band director makes a copy of it from his friend's library then I have no moral problem with it but I don't think it's legal under fair use or otherwise. I don't completely agree with the laws as they currently are, but that's not what we're discussing here.
Since you started the pissing match about qualifications and credentials I suppose I'll participate: I spent 5 years at North Texas (a school you should know if you're remotely involved in teaching music theory) as a jazz saxophone major, 4 years teaching at various schools around the North Texas area. In my current day job I interact with band directors on a daily basis. My wife recently left her job as an elementary music teacher in public school after 7 years. I've been playing professionally for over a decade. While I'm not an expert I have a pretty good clue of what I'm talking about.
The folks who publich sheet music for musicians to buy in music stores sell music.
Sheet music for musicians actually falls under very similar copyright laws. If you go down to the retail sheet music store and buy a piece of sheet music, you are legally not allowed to photocopy that sheet music any more than you're legally allowed to copy a CD or downloaded MP3 or any other book for that matter. If your copy of the media (usually paper, more recently downloaded PDF files) is destroyed or rendered useless then you're generally SOL and must purchase it again, just like with CDs or paid MP3s.
If you run a group, such as a school band or orchestra, you legally should buy a separate copy of the sheet music for each member of the group or make them share. While performance rights are generally not restricted you are not legally allowed to make a recording of your performance without securing permission from the publisher (which usually involves money changing hands).
Some publishers will make other concessions as part of their standard package. For example, when my wife taught elementary music she subscribed to a magazine that gave her new music for her students once a month. Part of the subscription was a license to copy the magazine as much as she wanted for her school, but not for anyone else (even other teachers in the same district). In this area at least, all of the major contests require that you provide the judges with original scores to the music (not photocopies) so that they can follow along. This provides reasonable assurance to the judges and the contest people that you've actually paid for the music like you were supposed to. If you have some other sort of agreement with the publisher then they require proof of that (my wife photocopied the license page out of the magazine).
As a general rule musicians realize the work and effort that goes into composing music and are happy to pay for it and help pad the composer's royalty check. Many band/orchestra directors ignore these laws and photocopy to their heart's content (especially when their students are prone to lost sheet music) just like many individuals freely copy MP3s. It's not uncommon even in a professional setting to be handed photocopies of music rather than the originals. Enforcement is VERY lax.
I'll leave others to debate the merits of the law, but those are the laws.
SSL certificates expire every year (or two or three). If the browser popped up a message to every user when the certificate was updated due to expiration, it would frighten many users away - users who know nothing more than "look for the padlock" if that. I think the idea of the browser checking the certificate for changes is definitely valid, but you'd have to be careful about just when you put out that popup.
I haven't dealt with a single company that requires paper payment. Most major service providers have payment forms on their website where I can give them my credit card number or banking information and they take the payment that way. In most cases this is free to me, somehow the electric company gets away with charging a $4.95 "convenience fee" if I pay online.
I pay most of my bills through online banking. If my bank knows the company that I'm paying (which includes most large companies and all of my local utilities) then I select the company from a list, give my account number and my bank sends the money via EFT. If my bank doesn't know the company, I just plug in the correct mailing address and my bank mails a check on my behalf.
What I would like to see is the ability to simply send money to another bank account. I understand it's very easy to do this in Europe. In the States I can send money anywhere I want, but the transfer costs me $25 (regardless of size). With fees like that it would only make sense when transferring multiple thousands of dollars at once.
I disagree. I sold some used motorcycle parts a few years ago, clearly stating in the auction that the parts were used and taking very close-up detailed pictures of the parts. Despite that, one buyer left me negative feedback because the item was "scratched." I can think of a dozen other hypothetical situations where I would want to leave negative feedback for a buyer, most involving the buyer not reading the auction or trying to scam a refund after the fact for some BS reason. If a customer is consistently an idiot then he deserves a bad rating so sellers can stay away from him. In the past, eBay would threaten to disable accounts with very poor feedback (I don't know if they ever did). That could save a lot of people a lot of grief.
That's not to say that there aren't dishonest sellers out there. Those sellers deserve negative feedback. Regardless, without any accountability for the buyer, sellers can easily get screwed over.
Personally I rarely write checks any longer. My bank will print and mail the check for me at no charge through my online banking system. For most major providers they send it electronically, but I can use that system to write a check to anyone I please. The bank deducts the amount from my account immediately, if the check comes back doctored and is cashed for a higher amount then it becomes their problem to deal with.
Slashdot Mirror
Those in rural areas, for the most part. I have family in a small town about 30 minutes south of Dallas (which isn't all that rural) and they have no available cable service and baling wire phone lines that can barely handle dialup. Satellite service is available, but as others have pointed out satellite and VOIP don't get along well due to the lag of sending a signal to space and back. My Sprint laptop card works somewhat but the signal isn't very strong.
I've used VOIP for years at both my business and my house - but we still have a landline. Just a few other roadblocks we ran into that weren't mentioned:
I love the flexibility I get with VOIP, I can work from anywhere with a decent internet connection and have all kinds of routing options through my Asterisk server, but we still have our incoming calls defaulting to a POTS line that runs into the Asterisk box. VOIP is constantly gaining ground but it's not there yet.
Have you listened to the 911 call? I have - the caller did not mention race until the 911 operator asked her. When asked, she replied "one looked kind of Hispanic but I'm not really sure." This hardly jives with your idea that she was "some busybody neighbor doesn't like your skin color living on her street."
Agreed, the situation could have been handled much better on both sides. Personally from what I've read I think Gates was just being a twit and the cop didn't do much to help the situation. Before you spew racial vitriol all over the internets, get your facts straight.
Since you apparently have not yet read the transcript I assume you're too lazy to look it up (it was posted on the front page of major news sites for some time after the incident). I'll save you the google time and provide a link:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/transcript_of_gates_call_1llqzVbjNMc0kloOxegLhO
This story seems to imply that the "man in a white van" was some pedophile or serial killer or whatever.
But there is a 99% or more chance that in fact he was the kid's father, or uncle or something, and that this incident was related to some family drama about child custody or the like.
True, but there's a 99% chance if the mysterious man WAS in fact a relative, he did not have the legal right to take the child. If he DID have the right, and he knew where the child was, there would have been no need to pull up in a van and kidnap the kid when he could have had the courts/police do the same thing.
Yes, I'm aware that our legal system is messed up and takes forever to process such things. However, since we're talking made-up statistics, there's a 99% chance that the man would still face significant consequences for his actions even if he was simply taking the law into his own hands to take the kid back while the police muddled through the paperwork and red tape.
Consider:
Especially at the start of the school year, this is not at all uncommon. Parents panic, and justifiably so, but the kid is usually found pretty quick when the bus driver finds an extra child on the bus at the end of the route. I wouldn't say it's an everyday occurrence but definitely a few times each year.
Unlike the limiter that you describe, this system adapts to different roads. With a basic limiter I can still drive 70 km/h in a residential neighborhood where the limit is (for example) 30 km/h. Using the system described in the article, the GPS would recognize that I am in a residential neighborhood and limit my speed appropriately.
It's well known that you can take pictures of (just about) anything you want that's visible from a public place and then publish the photos without any copyright issues. However, no respectable photojournalist would take such gory pictures, and if he did no respectable news outlet would purchase them or even consider publishing them. Pictures of the smashed car, maybe. Pictures of the smashed head, no.
By "significant public value" I assume you mean educational value - "look what happens when you act stupid." That's certainly arguable, but doesn't require personal identification of the girl behind the wheel to be effective.
Unfortunately the line between the Guard and the US military is very blurry and becoming moreso every day. A large number of the troops currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan are National Guard. When I deployed back in 2005 for hurricane relief (after Katrina+Rita) we were on state orders for a few days, but it wasn't long before the federal government picked up the tab (which meant a few extra benefits for us). The various state National Guard budgets receive quite a bit of money from the Federal budget every year and report to the National Guard Bureau.
Not to turn this into a gun control discussion, but I don't think that today's version of the National Guard is really what the founding fathers had in mind as a "well-regulated militia." There are many varying interpretations of that bit of text, but none describe a branch of the military funded and controlled (albeit remotely) by the Federal government.
Unless one lives in an English speaking country outright, school is never going to be sufficient to learn a workable English—there is simply not enough time for practice. That's valid for English and any other language.
Agree completely.
Many of my friends have had classes in Spanish either in high school or college. During my high school and college years I spent a lot of time waiting tables at various restaurants. The kitchen staff and bussers were almost invariably Hispanic, mostly immigrants from Mexico or South America. Later I spent a year managing a warehouse where many of the employees were immigrants. I learned quite a bit of Spanish language from them - especially words about food, boxes, trucks and profanity. While my friends can conjugate verbs and correct my Spanish grammar, I can actually communicate with Spanish-only individuals.
Actually, Americans are more likely to tell you that you need to speak English. I can't think of a single store in America where someone's going to try to find you a translator; most people simply don't have time for that level of customer service.
I live in Texas, north of Dallas but south of Oklahoma. We have a pretty big population of immigrants from central and south America. Many times the first generation speaks very little, if any, English. As a result many businesses and stores will have someone on staff who can speak Spanish and communicate with those customers. Many government forms are translated into Spanish. When my wife taught public school, every time she had to send a note home to her class she sent it in both English and Spanish (the receptionist translated). Most of the kids could speak English but often their parents could not. While I can speak a little bit, when I ran my retail store I made a point to have a fluent Spanish speaker on staff. I know that we got several sales from Spanish-speaking customers that most likely would have fallen through if we had to rely on my minimal Spanish vocabulary. At the moment I'm job-hunting and there are many, many jobs out there specifically looking for someone bi-lingual.
Other parts of the country may well be different, but in this area it's par for the course. Some businesses will, out of principle, refuse to translate anything or have a translator on staff. In most cases it's just good business sense to have at least some capability.
With other languages it's a crapshoot. We had some German customers in the store once who were vacationing. I had no way to translate for them, but I think unless you are in a business that deals with tourists from overseas on a regular basis then there's not much reason (from a strictly business perspective) to cater to that.
It's a schooner.
Several years ago I worked as a waiter at Pappadeaux seafood restaurant in Dallas. During some parts of the year we sold crawfish. They arrived at the restaurant frozen in big plastic bins. Before cooking them, we would pull the bins out of the freezer for a while to let them thaw out (apparently it tasted better that way).
Even though the critters had been frozen for quite some time (I assume several days, at least as long as it takes to get from Louisiana to Dallas, plus a day or two in our freezer) once they thawed out they would begin to move and respond to basic stimuli. At that point it wasn't long before they were thrown into boiling water, but at least for a short time they were alive, walking and clawing at anything they could get hold of including each other. It was a favorite trick of one manager to hide a defrosted crawfish in the bins of kale that we used as garnish on all the plates. Quite the surprise when you reach for a bit of greenery and get pinched by a crustacean.
Now, do they feel pain? I never made any attempt to find out. However, the freezer treatment didn't kill them.
I had a teacher do that to me once in high school compsci. She startled me so much that I jumped up and knocked her over the next row of desks. Not bright for the 5'2 100lb teacher to do that to the 6' 190lb student, eh? Though I fell asleep in that class many times after that, she never again woke me up in that same manner.
Unfortunately, many password systems will reject those passwords. I used to use a similar system, but started seeing errors about "your new password cannot use more than x characters from your old password." This of course means that they're saving my old passwords in plaintext or reversible encryption, which is a security risk in itself.
My most recent scheme is to use a pattern on the keyboard (yay for muscle memory). Usually I'll do the pattern once, then hold shift and do the same pattern. This gives you upper and lower case, and if you include a number or two it gives you numbers and punctuation. As long as your pattern is 5 characters long you'll pass 99% of the password rules out there (5 keys, hold shift then the same 5 keys makes 10 digits). When the time comes to change your password, shift the pattern one key to the left or right. This way I can at least guess my password in a few tries if I have to.
My fallback is this:
http://gnukeyring.sourceforge.net/
Stores the passwords on my palm pilot, encrypted. As long as I remember my decryption password and don't lose my palm pilot, I'm golden.
Dude, you're at the wrong bank. Between business and personal accounts I've banked with a half-dozen different places and don't remember one that would screw me the way you've described.
I DO take issue with one local bank, in that they always post the withdrawals for the day in descending order by amount. One day this resulted in 7 overdrafts, when it would have been only 1 if they had posted the debits in reverse order. However, that same bank ALWAYS posts deposits first, then withdrawals. If I go on a shopping spree over the weekend, spending more than what's in my checking account, as long as I make a deposit by 3 PM Monday everything is fine.
The other place where I currently do business is a credit union. They post transactions in real time throughout the day. That includes deposits - if I know a bill is coming that will overdraw my account, I make a deposit before it hits and I'm good to go.
Banks are definitely out there to hit you with as many fees as they can. They are, after all, for-profit businesses. As long as you learn the system and play by the rules you shouldn't get hit with many.
Based on the scenario you describe, the only way I can see that it would work out the way you describe is if the bank is not crediting your deposits to your account immediately. If your bank is doing that to you on a $200 deposit then you need a new bank. I've had money held before on larger checks (several thousand, or more than a few hundred from out of state individuals) but never $200. Even when the deposits were held it was never more than a day or two.
Theoretically once you fill out the paper at one bar you're good to go anywhere that takes Unicard. Unfortunately lots of places don't upload their data in a timely manner (or sometimes not at all) so you may have to do it several times before you're in the system. FWIW, most of my table-waiting experience was also in Denton County. I also spent some time working in nearby cities Arlington and Dallas (Tarrant and Dallas counties, respectively), neither of which had the Unicard hassle at the time.
In Texas, cities can decide to be wet or dry. In a "dry" city, a restaurant that serves alcohol must be a "private club." It's not so much a "private club" in that there are significant membership requirements, anyone can join if they're of age and there's no membership fee or ongoing responsibilities. I'm sure it's just another way for the city to tax the restaurant - how much does it cost to get a "private club" permit?
So if you're eating out and you want to have a beer, you must present a club membership card. Most restaurants have signed up with a company called Unicard. If you sign up at one Unicard restaurant...er..."private club" then you are automatically a member everywhere that takes Unicard. Years ago you actually got a separate membership card. Now it's associated with your driver's license number. When I was waiting tables the computer would refuse to let me input a drink order until I swiped a customer's Unicard (or driver's license). I'm sure that the computer was checking with the Unicard database to make sure that the person was actually a member. Was it tracking them? I have no idea. Probably so, in case the restaurant needed to look back and prove that a certain customer was in fact a member of the club when they bought that drink. Aside from the inherent lawsuit risks of serving alcohol, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is known for being ruthless and handing down VERY expensive fines to the restaurant and the waiter for any infraction.
A significant difference here is that Unicard is a private company, not a government entity. I'm sure they'll be quick to share their database if asked by a court, especially if it involves "terrists" or kiddie porn.
Disclaimer: IANAW (any more). I haven't waited tables for several years and I rarely drink when I'm out. Things may be different now.
I think you're confusing Samba with Sambo. Last I checked, Samba usually refers to a dance and/or musical style from Latin America (specifically Brazil, I believe). Sambo, on the other hand, is a racial slur indicating mixed race and also the title character of a children's book called Little Black Sambo. Whether the book or the slur came first is up for debate.
The thing I like about open source is that everyone can make the software better. Why a company wouldn't want to produce source code, is beyond me. I think they fear that they will be viewed as incompetent when several mistakes are found in their code, or that sneaky randomizer function call rears its ugly head.
It's not that hard to understand, really. The Intoxilyzer folks are more concerned with making (more) money than they are with making the world a better place, writing better code or producing a better breathalyzer.
Most open-source software authors produce code because they LIKE it. Maybe they get warm fuzzies out of making the world better with their application, more likely they just like writing code. Only a very small percentage actually make money at writing open source code - and most of that income comes from either customized versions of their software or from selling related hardware and support services.
Most software companies (including companies such as this one that sell hardware with embedded custom soft/firmware) produce code to make money. If they release the code as open source, someone else can take it and produce a similar product that functions the same and costs less. Yes, you can put licensing restrictions in that prevent that, but those restrictions are very rarely enforced. Unless you patent your methods (a whole other can of worms) someone can take your methods, re-write the code differently and release it with no legal ramifications whatsoever.
Basically, open-sourcing your code allows others to capitalize on the time you spent in R&D. The open source movement considers this a good thing. Most commercial software companies consider it a bad thing. There's room for both in the world.
As I said, and as you quoted:
If you go down to the retail sheet music store and buy a piece of sheet music, you are legally not allowed to photocopy that sheet music any more than you're legally allowed to copy a CD or downloaded MP3 or any other book for that matter.
Note, I said "not...any more than...a CD or downloaded MP3." Yes, fair use applies to sheet music just as it applies to CDs and MP3s. Archive, quote it for educational purposes, sure. While I'm not familiar with the intimate details of the fair use doctrine, I've seen plenty of copyright violations that would certainly not be included - band directors photocopying entire arrangements from their buddies' libraries, choir directors purchasing one copy of a part and making 100 copies for their students, bands making (and selling) recordings of other people's music without obtaining the proper rights. I've played several professional engagements where I was handed photocopies of the original parts because the venue couldn't/wouldn't spend the money on the parts but instead copied them from somewhere else. On multiple occasions I've been handed a "listening CD" before a gig to help me learn the music. You could argue that last one as fair use because it's for educational purposes but it's questionable to say the least.
I'm aware that there are many cases where photocopies would be the only solution. Music goes out of print, sometimes you need a part RIGHT NOW because someone left it at home before the gig. If a student loses the third page of his part and the band director makes a copy of it from his friend's library then I have no moral problem with it but I don't think it's legal under fair use or otherwise. I don't completely agree with the laws as they currently are, but that's not what we're discussing here.
Since you started the pissing match about qualifications and credentials I suppose I'll participate:
I spent 5 years at North Texas (a school you should know if you're remotely involved in teaching music theory) as a jazz saxophone major, 4 years teaching at various schools around the North Texas area. In my current day job I interact with band directors on a daily basis. My wife recently left her job as an elementary music teacher in public school after 7 years. I've been playing professionally for over a decade. While I'm not an expert I have a pretty good clue of what I'm talking about.
The folks who publich sheet music for musicians to buy in music stores sell music.
Sheet music for musicians actually falls under very similar copyright laws. If you go down to the retail sheet music store and buy a piece of sheet music, you are legally not allowed to photocopy that sheet music any more than you're legally allowed to copy a CD or downloaded MP3 or any other book for that matter. If your copy of the media (usually paper, more recently downloaded PDF files) is destroyed or rendered useless then you're generally SOL and must purchase it again, just like with CDs or paid MP3s.
If you run a group, such as a school band or orchestra, you legally should buy a separate copy of the sheet music for each member of the group or make them share. While performance rights are generally not restricted you are not legally allowed to make a recording of your performance without securing permission from the publisher (which usually involves money changing hands).
Some publishers will make other concessions as part of their standard package. For example, when my wife taught elementary music she subscribed to a magazine that gave her new music for her students once a month. Part of the subscription was a license to copy the magazine as much as she wanted for her school, but not for anyone else (even other teachers in the same district). In this area at least, all of the major contests require that you provide the judges with original scores to the music (not photocopies) so that they can follow along. This provides reasonable assurance to the judges and the contest people that you've actually paid for the music like you were supposed to. If you have some other sort of agreement with the publisher then they require proof of that (my wife photocopied the license page out of the magazine).
As a general rule musicians realize the work and effort that goes into composing music and are happy to pay for it and help pad the composer's royalty check. Many band/orchestra directors ignore these laws and photocopy to their heart's content (especially when their students are prone to lost sheet music) just like many individuals freely copy MP3s. It's not uncommon even in a professional setting to be handed photocopies of music rather than the originals. Enforcement is VERY lax.
I'll leave others to debate the merits of the law, but those are the laws.
SSL certificates expire every year (or two or three). If the browser popped up a message to every user when the certificate was updated due to expiration, it would frighten many users away - users who know nothing more than "look for the padlock" if that. I think the idea of the browser checking the certificate for changes is definitely valid, but you'd have to be careful about just when you put out that popup.
I haven't dealt with a single company that requires paper payment. Most major service providers have payment forms on their website where I can give them my credit card number or banking information and they take the payment that way. In most cases this is free to me, somehow the electric company gets away with charging a $4.95 "convenience fee" if I pay online. I pay most of my bills through online banking. If my bank knows the company that I'm paying (which includes most large companies and all of my local utilities) then I select the company from a list, give my account number and my bank sends the money via EFT. If my bank doesn't know the company, I just plug in the correct mailing address and my bank mails a check on my behalf.
What I would like to see is the ability to simply send money to another bank account. I understand it's very easy to do this in Europe. In the States I can send money anywhere I want, but the transfer costs me $25 (regardless of size). With fees like that it would only make sense when transferring multiple thousands of dollars at once.
I disagree. I sold some used motorcycle parts a few years ago, clearly stating in the auction that the parts were used and taking very close-up detailed pictures of the parts. Despite that, one buyer left me negative feedback because the item was "scratched." I can think of a dozen other hypothetical situations where I would want to leave negative feedback for a buyer, most involving the buyer not reading the auction or trying to scam a refund after the fact for some BS reason. If a customer is consistently an idiot then he deserves a bad rating so sellers can stay away from him. In the past, eBay would threaten to disable accounts with very poor feedback (I don't know if they ever did). That could save a lot of people a lot of grief.
That's not to say that there aren't dishonest sellers out there. Those sellers deserve negative feedback. Regardless, without any accountability for the buyer, sellers can easily get screwed over.
Personally I rarely write checks any longer. My bank will print and mail the check for me at no charge through my online banking system. For most major providers they send it electronically, but I can use that system to write a check to anyone I please. The bank deducts the amount from my account immediately, if the check comes back doctored and is cashed for a higher amount then it becomes their problem to deal with.