They can't stop you from paying with gbuy, any more than they can stop you from using a money order.
It won't be automated though, and after getting spoilt by easy automated payment that is quite a barrier. I suppose you could have scripts that would harvest info from your ebay account and make the payment automatically...
I worked for echostar tech support during a low point of my life, and out of my training class of 25 there were 2 left after 1 month "on the floor." All the nice people were gone, many of them crying, after getting reamed by some asshole customer.
Company policy was abysmal, wait times were often near 1 hour, we had a counterproductive call center in Thailand - I felt sorry for the customers. However, many of them were so rude and aggressive and humiliating that you either had to be thick-skinned, retarded, or very very desperate in order to stay.
I saw good people running out of the building screaming and crying every day. All because of how the customers treated us.
I have dealt very differently with support calls ever since. If I stay polite (which doesn't cost me anything) I get way more. I can laugh with the poor rep and get their supervisor if that is what is needed. I don't get all stressed out and furious - it is counterproductive and ruins my day.
When you're on the phone with a CSR you can't change corporate policy. Why not be civilized? Why not make the best of it?
They used to call those Luggable computers. My friend's dad had a kaypro or northstar CP/M computer. You could pick it up and take it anywhere, plug it in and go.
Of course now you don't have a 30 pound beast with a 5 inch screen. But it is the exact same concept.
Wireless would minimize the $$ that gets to AT&T. I've used T-Mobile's unlimited data service ($20/month) and it was acceptable. About 120k up/down was the speed I experienced.
Some areas have ricochet or whatever that morphed into, that would be another option.
At the worst, if you felt forced to use their service, you could set up a wireless network with your neighbors to minimize how much $$ the bad guys get from each of you.
OK, I think I understand the problem. CO2 is much different. Our atmosphere is a complex system, possibly with different equilibrium points, and we are affecting it hugely. Anyone who understands climate would predict that CO2 emissions this large will affect climate.
Moon mass changes without our involvement. Always has, always will. We'd be hard pressed to come close to the effects of natural fluctuation, even with history-making levels of cooperation, singlemindedness, and technological breakthrough.
Do you think we should somehow intercept meteorites to keep the earth and moon from changing mass? There are about 50,000 tons of material that fall onto earth every year. That is a lot, but it doesn't change things much. Why? Because it is an irrelevant amount compared to the earth's total mass. Mass isn't some complex equilibrium system. If the earth gains a million tons of material over time it won't change anything. There's actually nothing we could do to stop it, despite your irrational worries. The moon gains mass at a proportional rate. Should we try to stop that? The moon's orbit is widening, 4cm/year. In 100 billion years that's 4 million kilometers!!! Guess what? We shouldn't care. 100 billion years is a very long time.
People are ignoring things that matter right now. I think it's idiotic to cloud the issue with things that can't possibly matter.
If you think the moon's gravitational pull on the earth can affect things when it changes by a few billionths of a percent, you'd better start campaigning to stabilize it's orbit and prevent meteor strikes. Hopefully you can tell that is a joke.
To summarize, the earth's mass and the moon's mass are not stable. Their orbits are not stable. Eventually the moon will leave our planet.
I admire your sense that we should try to think things through, but this seems like astrology or something. If the moon was emitting magic beams that'll turn toxic if anything changes we'd better start mining to keep it's mass stable. Regretably, it'll be very tough to mine the 5,000 tons/year it'll take to keep it's mass the same. As far as fixing it's orbit, I'd say we're screwed. It'd take millions of atomic blasts to stabilize that.
You need to pick your battles, and there are many more important and relevant ones than keeping the moon's gravitational pull exactly the same. It's been varying since the birth of the solar system, and it hasn't screwed anything up yet.
Wow. I tried to give you some perspective and you just don't get it.
We'll never mine the moon within 100 orders of magnitude what we mine on earth. It isn't physically possible, economically possible, any kind of possible.
We've never done anything for 1,000 years. A million years is unthinkable.
Dammit, I was trying to be so completely ridiculously over the top in my estimates that you'd say "Hm...maybe this effect is smaller than I thought."
Take a look at the moon. It's got some obvious and large craters. Obviously, it's mass has changed over the years. The bigger ones probably changed it's mass by 1 or 2 percent. Maybe 10 percent, I don't know.
It's like worrying about china changing the earth's rotation by shipping things to the US. When you're hundreds if not thousands of orders of magnitude away from making a difference, when you're well below natural fluctuations, you don't have to worry about it.
The moon's mass isn't in some delicate equilibrium that can become disturbed.
Current global mined raw material is 6 * 10^12 kg per year.
So it'd take about 10 billion years to use the moon up if we only used lunar raw materials and didn't bother recycling. In a million years we'd only have affected it's mass by 1%.
I got an ulcerated cornea from (hard) contact lens several years ago. It was quite painful, debilitating really, but my doctor said he'd never had anyone go blind from it. If you are in good health otherwise and get prompt treatment it isn't a very high risk.
Good for you. It's nice to see someone young stick up for theirself.
I grudgingly accepted a pager at my first job, but in 2 years only got 1 work related page. I don't think I'd do it again. If it is that important, they can hire more people, do 3 days on 4 days off or something. When I'm on my own time I don't want to be bothered by work. I don't even want to be bothered by friends or family who I'm not hanging out with. If something bad happens, I will probably find out about it.
I doubt I'll ever get a cellphone unless they get cheaper than $10/month unlimited, and I'll usually have it turned off. Given voice quality, that might still be too pricey for me.
It's too bad that our society doesn't respect leisure time anymore. I think police officers have a stressful job and deserve time off to unwind. It's sad that they're always on call, and I don't think they should be allowed to work overtime for private gigs. Here there have been numerous shootings of police and citizens and it often is an officer working 40 hours for the police, 40 hours for "off-duty" private security, and the remaining 88 hours per week on call.
I'm not surprised someone so overworked and stressed out makes mistakes. It's sad people die over it. I know it's even worse for doctors.
I'd like people doing important work to be given sacred time off. They'll do a better job.
I finally broke down and tested, and here are my results:
The paragraph tags <p> are broken. The first one you use acts like a <br> and the rest work just fine. If you use 2 paragraph tags the first time it acts like 1 paragraph tag (or 2 br tags) if you use 1 paragraph tag it acts like a br tag.
You really didn't get fair treatment on this topic today. You seem like a reasonable person, I can understand your point of view, and it seems valid. I was hoping to explain some of the hostility you got.
The problem is a technological one and really didn't exist before 2000 or so. I think that is why people are drawn to technological solutions.
Perhaps etiquette will catch up with technology, but I have my doubts. From what I see on the roads these days, consideration for others is a lost art.
I think confronting rude cellphone users is the best thing we can do. If enough people do it, things might change. Other people who stay silent might be inspired to speak up.
I also understand the desire to fix a problem made possible by technology with technology.
I believe that things are worse because of cellphones. I've seen doctors get distracted by their phone while examining me. How many mistakes has that caused? What's wrong with scheduling enough doctors so the ones off duty can be off duty? What's wrong with firemen staying at the house like they did for hundreds of years? They'll get to the fire faster that way. I think cellphones make bad policy possible in many cases, and that it degrades quality. Also, they seem to make people ruder in general. Oh well, they're here to stay. I'm trying to get used to it, trying to make the best of it.
The problem here is simple. 10 years ago, most people didn't have a cellphone. 20 years ago pretty much nobody did. Now, everyone does. The world got along pretty well without cellphones going off all the time. Fires got put out, surgeries were performed, IT projects got completed and stayed running. Firefighters, EMTs, and doctors used to get along fine before cellphones. So did IT workers. So did neurotic parents.
It used to be part of the reason we went to theaters - to get away from our life for 2 hours.
I think it's sad that people think they have to be connected, reachable 24/7. It makes their lives more distracted. I've had friends destroyed by their cellphone. They can't concentrate anymore. Can't talk to one person anymore. Can't even watch a frickin movie without getting interrupted.
And, to top it all off, 99%+ of all the calls that I've seen interfere with real life have been completely pointless. I've never heard someone say "OK I'll be at the firehouse in 20 mins" and rush off. Never "I'll be in surgery ASAP." It's always "I can't believe she said that, what a bitch!" or "No, you can't eat any ice cream. Put your sister on the phone." And every time the subject comes up, it's all about the poor doctors, firemen and crucial IT projects.
Maybe it's a generational thing, but a lot of people get miffed by the attitude that constant cellphone availibility is a right, or even a good thing. A lot of people are going to think of those 10,000 pointless calls that have interrupted things every time you say you really really need your phone. Some of them will get angry about it and flame you, I hope I haven't given that impression.
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16 year olds?!? Try five.
It won't be automated though, and after getting spoilt by easy automated payment that is quite a barrier. I suppose you could have scripts that would harvest info from your ebay account and make the payment automatically...
1st result, 1st sentence: Our informal corporate motto is "Don't be evil."
Here's proof
Repo Man isn't a criminal, or the State. There are plenty of counterexamples.
C-470 connects to 70 twice.
I-225 connects to I-25 once and I-70 once.
I'd say keep working on this rule.
Your I-80 is defective. Mine goes from SF to NY.
Of course, if gay terrorist child-molesters figure out how to channel lightening we're all doomed!
Plus, I sold some singles on ebay for an average of $10/each a few years back.
I think 99 cents is kind of a lot to pay for something you don't own.
Statues, sculptures, and everything.
Company policy was abysmal, wait times were often near 1 hour, we had a counterproductive call center in Thailand - I felt sorry for the customers. However, many of them were so rude and aggressive and humiliating that you either had to be thick-skinned, retarded, or very very desperate in order to stay.
I saw good people running out of the building screaming and crying every day. All because of how the customers treated us.
I have dealt very differently with support calls ever since. If I stay polite (which doesn't cost me anything) I get way more. I can laugh with the poor rep and get their supervisor if that is what is needed. I don't get all stressed out and furious - it is counterproductive and ruins my day.
When you're on the phone with a CSR you can't change corporate policy. Why not be civilized? Why not make the best of it?
I haven't seen any lately with a built-in screen. Or an 8" floppy drive.
The last several job applications I've seen phrase it "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?"
Of course now you don't have a 30 pound beast with a 5 inch screen. But it is the exact same concept.
Some areas have ricochet or whatever that morphed into, that would be another option.
At the worst, if you felt forced to use their service, you could set up a wireless network with your neighbors to minimize how much $$ the bad guys get from each of you.
Moon mass changes without our involvement. Always has, always will. We'd be hard pressed to come close to the effects of natural fluctuation, even with history-making levels of cooperation, singlemindedness, and technological breakthrough.
Do you think we should somehow intercept meteorites to keep the earth and moon from changing mass? There are about 50,000 tons of material that fall onto earth every year. That is a lot, but it doesn't change things much. Why? Because it is an irrelevant amount compared to the earth's total mass. Mass isn't some complex equilibrium system. If the earth gains a million tons of material over time it won't change anything. There's actually nothing we could do to stop it, despite your irrational worries. The moon gains mass at a proportional rate. Should we try to stop that? The moon's orbit is widening, 4cm/year. In 100 billion years that's 4 million kilometers!!! Guess what? We shouldn't care. 100 billion years is a very long time.
People are ignoring things that matter right now. I think it's idiotic to cloud the issue with things that can't possibly matter.
If you think the moon's gravitational pull on the earth can affect things when it changes by a few billionths of a percent, you'd better start campaigning to stabilize it's orbit and prevent meteor strikes. Hopefully you can tell that is a joke.
To summarize, the earth's mass and the moon's mass are not stable. Their orbits are not stable. Eventually the moon will leave our planet.
I admire your sense that we should try to think things through, but this seems like astrology or something. If the moon was emitting magic beams that'll turn toxic if anything changes we'd better start mining to keep it's mass stable. Regretably, it'll be very tough to mine the 5,000 tons/year it'll take to keep it's mass the same. As far as fixing it's orbit, I'd say we're screwed. It'd take millions of atomic blasts to stabilize that.
You need to pick your battles, and there are many more important and relevant ones than keeping the moon's gravitational pull exactly the same. It's been varying since the birth of the solar system, and it hasn't screwed anything up yet.
We'll never mine the moon within 100 orders of magnitude what we mine on earth. It isn't physically possible, economically possible, any kind of possible.
We've never done anything for 1,000 years. A million years is unthinkable.
Dammit, I was trying to be so completely ridiculously over the top in my estimates that you'd say "Hm...maybe this effect is smaller than I thought."
Take a look at the moon. It's got some obvious and large craters. Obviously, it's mass has changed over the years. The bigger ones probably changed it's mass by 1 or 2 percent. Maybe 10 percent, I don't know.
It's like worrying about china changing the earth's rotation by shipping things to the US. When you're hundreds if not thousands of orders of magnitude away from making a difference, when you're well below natural fluctuations, you don't have to worry about it.
The moon's mass isn't in some delicate equilibrium that can become disturbed.
The lunar astronauts noticed the dust stuck to everything and the small quantity that was tracked back into atmosphere caused eye and lung irritation.
Current global mined raw material is 6 * 10^12 kg per year.
So it'd take about 10 billion years to use the moon up if we only used lunar raw materials and didn't bother recycling. In a million years we'd only have affected it's mass by 1%.
I'd say we can ignore this concern.
I got an ulcerated cornea from (hard) contact lens several years ago. It was quite painful, debilitating really, but my doctor said he'd never had anyone go blind from it. If you are in good health otherwise and get prompt treatment it isn't a very high risk.
I grudgingly accepted a pager at my first job, but in 2 years only got 1 work related page. I don't think I'd do it again. If it is that important, they can hire more people, do 3 days on 4 days off or something. When I'm on my own time I don't want to be bothered by work. I don't even want to be bothered by friends or family who I'm not hanging out with. If something bad happens, I will probably find out about it.
I doubt I'll ever get a cellphone unless they get cheaper than $10/month unlimited, and I'll usually have it turned off. Given voice quality, that might still be too pricey for me.
It's too bad that our society doesn't respect leisure time anymore. I think police officers have a stressful job and deserve time off to unwind. It's sad that they're always on call, and I don't think they should be allowed to work overtime for private gigs. Here there have been numerous shootings of police and citizens and it often is an officer working 40 hours for the police, 40 hours for "off-duty" private security, and the remaining 88 hours per week on call.
I'm not surprised someone so overworked and stressed out makes mistakes. It's sad people die over it. I know it's even worse for doctors.
I'd like people doing important work to be given sacred time off. They'll do a better job.
The paragraph tags <p> are broken. The first one you use acts like a <br> and the rest work just fine. If you use 2 paragraph tags the first time it acts like 1 paragraph tag (or 2 br tags) if you use 1 paragraph tag it acts like a br tag.
Sorry for the confusion.
The problem is a technological one and really didn't exist before 2000 or so. I think that is why people are drawn to technological solutions.
Perhaps etiquette will catch up with technology, but I have my doubts. From what I see on the roads these days, consideration for others is a lost art.
I think confronting rude cellphone users is the best thing we can do. If enough people do it, things might change. Other people who stay silent might be inspired to speak up.
I also understand the desire to fix a problem made possible by technology with technology.
I believe that things are worse because of cellphones. I've seen doctors get distracted by their phone while examining me. How many mistakes has that caused? What's wrong with scheduling enough doctors so the ones off duty can be off duty? What's wrong with firemen staying at the house like they did for hundreds of years? They'll get to the fire faster that way. I think cellphones make bad policy possible in many cases, and that it degrades quality. Also, they seem to make people ruder in general. Oh well, they're here to stay. I'm trying to get used to it, trying to make the best of it.
And people don't generally shout at their seatmates. For some reason, people shout into cellphones. It's the damndest thing!
It used to be part of the reason we went to theaters - to get away from our life for 2 hours.
I think it's sad that people think they have to be connected, reachable 24/7. It makes their lives more distracted. I've had friends destroyed by their cellphone. They can't concentrate anymore. Can't talk to one person anymore. Can't even watch a frickin movie without getting interrupted.
And, to top it all off, 99%+ of all the calls that I've seen interfere with real life have been completely pointless. I've never heard someone say "OK I'll be at the firehouse in 20 mins" and rush off. Never "I'll be in surgery ASAP." It's always "I can't believe she said that, what a bitch!" or "No, you can't eat any ice cream. Put your sister on the phone." And every time the subject comes up, it's all about the poor doctors, firemen and crucial IT projects.
Maybe it's a generational thing, but a lot of people get miffed by the attitude that constant cellphone availibility is a right, or even a good thing. A lot of people are going to think of those 10,000 pointless calls that have interrupted things every time you say you really really need your phone. Some of them will get angry about it and flame you, I hope I haven't given that impression.