I used to work twelves. The company I worked for would have us two days on, two days off, three days on, two days off, two days on, three days off... The three days always was on fri-sun. I loved it, really. You could essentially take two days vacation and have a whole week off.
Lol... hear, hear! Yeah, how long has it been since the I5 bridge was made... or even worked on? The bridge is way too narrow for the traffic and has been for decades! I205 doesn't off-balance it because it's ten or more miles away! Granted, around ten miles once or twice isn't a big deal but five days a week, four or so weeks a month, twelve months a year... that's serious cash going to gas! Not to mention, the OR schools really need the cash. Whenever the state doesn't have enough money (which is quite often) they take it away from the school funds before anything.
The justification for the gas tax is that your tax is proportional to your usage of the infrastructure. The point of the gas tax is to raise funds for the State government. Private roads only disrupt the justification of the gas tax, not it's function.
However the creation of an extensive toll system to tax mileage will undoubtedly make for a nice fat contract to be awarded to a private contractor somewhere in Oregon, and there can be the additional claim of "jobs created". Simply raising the existing gas tax would be far too efficient.
Yes and this will probably go to a minority for a higher price than it would go to a white male business owner. This is how the government works, you see...
1. As a road usage tax it doesn't take into consideration gas for equipment like lawn mowers and chainsaws.
2. It doesn't take into consideration driving done on private roads or roads not maintained by the government.
#2 is pretty big in Oregon due to the amount of logging they do. There's a lot of people who spend most of their time driving on logging trails. #2 is also the reason why GPS tracking of miles driven is dumb. It could very well count miles driven on private roads.
Logging roads aren't the only roads that aren't maintained, either... Ye olde Forest Service roads aren't maintained by the normal crew that maintains roads for the state (Forest Service does it- or used to and probably still does). There's so many places in OR that are really out in the middle of nowhere, as well. Anywhere that the normal state crews don't get to, the Forest Service or other agencies out there that can do the job steps in. Yes, there's also a plethora of private roads that property owners take care of... So, this makes one wonder if they're just going to monitor the roads in the big cities, as well as the main routes to and around the vacation spots? This might be another instance like the county income tax and they might also keep the tax on the pumps with the extra "monitored" tax. This is more like OR, really....
I agree. And it disables the incentive that the gas tax gives and it treats all mileage the same. In other words, if I'm driving a big heavy vehicle that wears the roads more than a smaller lighter vehicle, I pay the same. A tractor-trailer rig pays the same per mile as a Prius? I do understand it from the perspective of alternative fuel vehicles that are/will not pay the gas tax. We need to find alternative funding, but I don't like this solution.
Not to mention, it taxes those Washingtonians even more! Let's see how much of their money they can take before someone slaps us with a fine for ignoring the constitution!!
You know Oregon gas prices are usually lower than both Washington and California, so your not paying extra for someone to fill your tank. It provides jobs andsupposedly keeps things safe. Its really quite nice, if its raining and windy and crap, you don't have to get out of your car (unless its a pay inside place).
Umm... I'm not sure where you're at but when I lived in WA, the gas was WAY cheaper than in OR. It was even enough to make my penny-pinching dad drive up there to fill his tank. Actually, that was the only reason he visited us, really...
Grandma. Your Grandma - Making consumers pump gas would mean that your grandma is going to have to get out of the car into the snow on her walker to pump her gas, because most gas stations won't have Full Service, and the ones that do will charge far more than for self serve and your grandma won't be able to afford it. Yes, the newspapers really do get letters like that any time they propose changing the law. New Jersey's full-serve gas is almost always cheaper than self-serve across the border in PA or NY; I suspect Oregon's isnt'. (Here in California, gas stations have to pump gas for handicapped people for no extra charge, but our gas taxes are about 50 cents higher than most of the country's, so grandma's still getting ripped off.)
Actually, this isn't an issue at all. In WA state, they don't do the required pumping service. Several gas stations have the self or service pump option. You could seriously throw a rock and hit one. The price for pumping service (if you're not elderly or disabled) still makes gas cheaper in WA than OR (and OR has the enforced pumping service). Elderly and disabled can get free pumping service in WA... Not only does a handicap permit allow this to happen but also a drivers' license showing you are at such an age or older works just as well. Granted, I don't know if any of this has changed...
Income tax is the right way to do it. O how I wished everyone just used income tax. A few percentage points to the feds, a few to the state, and a few to the city/county. It would be so easy and clear cut. Any other form of taxation increases the scarcity of valuable goods. If the state needs more they raise the income tax a percentage point. Heck, if 10% is good enough for the Lord, it ought to be good enough for the government.
I hope you're joking... because this is all about Oregon and they're the ones who are big on income tax. WA state doesn't have any income tax and they're doing a lot better. Their schools have more sufficient funding than OR state, medical programs, too... roads are fixed more often/better than in OR... the list goes on. Sales tax has never stopped people from buying. When I lived in WA, I saw the stores packed with people. Why do they go there? They could have just hopped the border- oh, about ten miles away- and just bought it in Oregon.
I think I figured once that the federal government could live on 2-3% GRT. My mother hated the idea because she was about to sell a house, and that seemed unfair. I pointed out she just gave 6% to some fool who did nothing but put a sign in her yard - and how much was it worth to defend that land and guarantee her right to own it in the first place. She wasn't swayed:-)
Yeah but she grew up or was a young adult during the time that the government hid things from everyone and she's seen just how much she could trust them (which is less than the distance she could chuck the White House). I'm thinking it stems from that. Of course, I'm not saying that the government has changed its ways and isn't lying to us anymore but I think it's more like back then, people trusted it more and were violated for that trust. Now, we just know they're doing stuff behind our backs and grudgingly live with it.
One serious annoyance for me was that I worked about 3 miles into Oregon while living in Washington and had to pay OR state income tax while receiving no tangible benefits for this tax. I used about 6 miles of road per day, that's it. And to top it off, my state income tax didn't even give me the right to vote on HOW they spend my money.
So, back to your question. Sales tax is generally favorable to income tax in my opinion. I don't think it will ever work for Oregon though. They depend on workers from southern Washington to prop up their income tax and that would disappear if they switch to a sales tax. Also, literally billions of dollars annually are pumped into the Portland metro area by shoppers from WA state looking to avoid their own sales tax.
Yes, its illegal but it happens every day.
I've done the same... Lived in WA while working in OR. Well, I would have taken a WA job except that all the Oregonians took them. You know, they still get taxed for income by the state of Oregon... As far as going into OR for buying things.. I've done that but only because there were shops I preferred to buy from over there- or they had the only kind of that shop. The sales tax in WA... not so bad. There's probably better but $0.0765 per dollar doesn't add up that much. Groceries aren't taxed for sales, unless it's carbonated or alcoholic- or made for you, like from the deli. In Arkansas, even groceries are taxed. In WA, if you buy a big ticket item either in or out of state, you get taxed (aka car, boat, etc.). Property taxes are better in WA than OR... you don't get a county income tax in WA while you do in a good portion of OR (yes, this is on top of the normal state income tax and only if you're living in certain counties- wait, is this still going on- probably). Well, what this boils down to is that Oregon is a mess. They don't know how to spend money. New taxes are popping up all over the place but they're still cutting funds to schools and medical. Schools in OR have had to get rid of arts and music programs because of this. I don't know... but I'm voting for the conspiracy that the government is pocketing the money on this one... unless they really ARE idiots and can't count/manage money. Hmm... is it too late to change my vote...?
Actually, there are scientists that are repeating experiments with both blind and normal people. They are saying we are using a sonar-like process like bats do. They blindfold everyone and do tests with solid areas, soft areas, tap shoes, no tap shoes, etc. Solid surfaces with tap shoes worked the best over everyone. I think I saw this on one of the HD Discovery or Science channels on TV.
You need to figure out who is in the most control of this, as they will be the ones who figure out your rights, if you have any. Then, you can negotiate with them to get what you want, or decide not to do this. If they say they don't have any control over your rights and point at the college or another business, then you need to ask to have that in writing, with a signature and the date (dated material). This, you would keep for your records. As soon as they tell you who, though, start calling. Any time anyone says someone else controls something, ask for it in writing. If you just end up going in a huge circle, start asking to talk to managers or company CEO's. State your business and don't be emotional about it. I'm sure what you want is something they don't care a lot about, anyway. Whatever you do, ALWAYS get everything in writing, with a signature and date on it. Always... Documentation is the most important thing in the business world.
I'd say get him a computer just the year before kindergarten. Get something older, that's cheap- but just enough to put those learning games on it. Budget time for him to play on it. Make sure he can print out the awards or whatever the games have for completing the lessons. Until then, he doesn't at all need his own computer. Maybe you can prime him by sitting him on your lap at the desktop, opening Word and letting him type... or opening up Wikipedia, telling him what to type and also helping him find the keys. That will get him learning more. He's interested in electronics, now, because of the flashiness and because you're interested in them. Oh, btw, he's not precocious. My daughter got onto my computer while I was at work (while her dad was supposed to be watching her), accessed the network and deleted important windows files on his computer, causing him to have to format and re-install everything on his computer. Yes, he tried to repair and everything and no, she wasn't 2 years old... she was 6 MONTHS old! Yes, I lol'ed a lot when I got home that morning, from work...
Unfortunately, in the USA, high school math is like learning to drive a slot car (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slot_car) (arithmetic, algebra, maybe trig and geometry). (snip)
More like learning to drive a slot car after having learned how to in grade school... Even if you do get into algebra, geometry or trig, they still find a way to make it all just like what you did in grade school... Actually, though, I was in algebra in middle school. It was still too easy... Halfway through high school, the government offered to me to take a test. If I did well, I'd almost never have to set foot in a high school again. If I didn't, then I would... and if I did well on half, then half my time would be at the high school. You bet I made the most out of those two years of free college! Oh, excuse me... it was the cost of books plus seventy-five cents a quarter for a building fee. By the way, if you know what you're doing, you can buy a nice looking used book (aka, no tears or worn places- as well as pen markings) clean it up and sell it for more than you paid for it at the end of the quarter... Yeah, you learn even how to make a little extra money in college...
Yeah, I remember being completely bored in middle school and high school math. I always got an A or.05% away from one... but I never turned in one homework assignment. If the stuff was fun to do, I would do it in class, then throw it away in the garbage can. They should have advanced me but they didn't. Since they didn't do their work, I figured I didn't need to do mine... In college, I loved it, and learned a lot. High school... yeah, learned nothing. They kept me back in English, too, because I was the only one who came from the school I came from. Others who took Spanish or French instead of English scored worse in their English tests. Luckily, I had an English teacher who felt sorry for me and gave me different assignments than the normal curriculum.
I'm just glad I don't pay per message.....$140+/month just in messages alone....not counting the base plan ($70) and the additional line costs ($10/additional phone = $40) and junk fees, etc. I have to think that if you have teenage kids (at least girls), an unlimited texting plan is a must.
Layne
Lol, yeah, teenage girls can be really bad. However, in our household, my brother was worse than me. I wasn't really normal, though... If I wanted to get in touch with my friends, I knew where they were and if I had to, I BICYCLED to them! Actually, sometimes, I bicycled to them even though I could have driven. I think I loved the exercise... My brother, though, was ALWAYS on the phone... lol.
My account covers that, too.....but that requires that their friends be connected to whichever chat program they are using, etc. With text messaging, it works across all providers, regardless of what they use, it does "offline" messages better. Etc.
Layne
Mine worked just like however YIM, AIM and MSN worked and I could IM people on computers or phones the same. I was pretty happy with it. Any IM's where I sent a picture, though, counted towards my pictures sent.
(snip) In the old days, systems which were important after hours had staff on hand which could support them. Sure, they couldn't make system or design changes. But they could get into the systems to find the problem and fix them. Now we don't have that, we have lazy staff that play iPhone games at night.
My current method of getting rid of these calls is getting products with some resiliency so problems such as a cut T1 can auto fail over, thus no phone calls. Hardware RAID and backup PSU's in everything important. Redundant core networking. It costs more, but I think everyone benefits. But that can't solve all issues that come up at night.
The last place I worked at, if you worked night shift, you better well know how to fix things because the companies that made the machines have been out of business for around twenty years. We could only get parts because our plant's sister plant in Germany found a place over there that still makes the stuff. Granted, they never made the machines and really only supplied the parts... Anyway, normal operators at night were relied upon to be maintenance, with the maintenance staff. Sometimes, we even knew as much as or more than them. If the computer systems for the machines went down, we were totally screwed... they had to fly a guy in from Germany to fix it. DOS was easier to work with than these ancient things! Heck, half the computers on the NETWORK were only able to run DOS... so glad I wasn't in the IS department... The computer systems kept the inside of the machines at either around 450 degrees or 680 degrees (yes, celcius... since the machinery was mostly european) and when they went down, the machines cooled down uncontrollably. An uncontrolled cooling resulted in up to around $180,000 of damage... and that's just one side. Yes, this has happened before there, on a week DAY shift- and there was nothing anyone could do about it because not even the American engineers knew what to do, other than call for the guy from Germany. (I bet, though, if it happened on night shift, we would have figured out a way to make them work until they could get someone to actually fix the things. Granted, when we got something to work, they never looked at it... if it doesn't look broke, don't do anything to it at all?) Most of the time, though, the computers on the machines went into no communication because some idiot used a radio without grounding the antenna on some metal... those things interrupted all of our machinery. It's when they went into a coma when we would call maintenance and start doing anything we could do to get the things going... and seriously, it was all halfway-informed guesses... and our guesses were about what the maintenance and engineers could do- or better. Definitely a fail moment.
Oh, another thing. We had a printer that controlled our output for the day, pretty much. If the printout didn't complete, we didn't move out the material. That printer had been in there since the 80's and had broken down several times. Every single time, we've had to fix it on night shift. Freaking day shift with all the support they had didn't even fix the thing! The last straw for the printer was on a weekend, when it just completely broke in pieces inside. We called someone, of course. Someone on-call, with a pager and cell phone. They didn't come. We were able to rubber band, paper-clip and glue the thing together long enough to last a day. The middle day, on day shift, it broke again and there was absolutely no resurrecting it. The next shift that came in for the other rotation screamed at the manager of our area that we broke the printer and caused them a mess that they had to move out and would cost their output... but of course, we had already sent a report on it every night of the weekend and so did our day shift. We called the freaking on-call person every hour all weekend, as well. The person who was supposed to come in and fix the thing should have been reprimanded but probably wasn't. Come the next day we worked, there was a shiny, new printer there... about time... geesh!
Lol, my old work buddy who is still there is saying they're trying to do everything by the book now.. good luck in that...
Mine didn't get free text messaging but for $10 more, I got a media plan, which was 1000 free text a month, 50 photos and the YIM, AIM and MSN you could use were counted as text messages... you got enough free downloads for like one background a month or something but were severely limited on what was free... like I cared. My minutes were an absurd amount per month for one freaking phone and they added up until the end of December, so it ended up being an OMGWTFWHEREDIDALLTHESEMINUTESCOMEFROM??!?!!!? amount. Yeah... I think it was the $60/month plan or something... it was the least amount because I was like wth.. how can I use this all? Then, I thought of my mom and thought: oh, wait... Of course, I remembered that I usually ended phone calls with my mom on my own because if I didn't, I'd have cauliflower ear and no hearing left.
(snip)They basically use text messaging as an IM client without being locked in to a particular service (AOL, MSN, Yahoo, etc.).
Layne
I had a service where you could use YIM, AIM and MSN on the phone and it was billed as text messages, even though you were kind of on the internet. It's possible they have that as well...
They still do it, though. I couldn't believe it when I got my first telemarketer on the cell phone... after that, I started answering with Dominoes Pizza, speaking. Would you like to hear our specials? Yeah, funny how there's no more spam callers... I miss my old system when I was a teenager... The telemarketers would call our listed number first, then the unlisted one (for the fax machine and computers) was next. When they called the second number, I'd let the fax machine pick it up... Now, I know there's a lot of deaf telemarketers out there...
Ugh, I'd be telling everyone to hang up before the message service picks it up and text me... how annoying! They obviously make a mint off people in Canada...
It's in the deal you get. I'm sure there's some charge for it in the package you get, if you read the fine text... but it's probably just worked into the overall amount of the thing.
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I used to work twelves. The company I worked for would have us two days on, two days off, three days on, two days off, two days on, three days off... The three days always was on fri-sun. I loved it, really. You could essentially take two days vacation and have a whole week off.
Uno! Yeah, haven't played that in a loooonnnnnggg time... especially since my dad wore the damned game out on me!
Lol... hear, hear! Yeah, how long has it been since the I5 bridge was made... or even worked on? The bridge is way too narrow for the traffic and has been for decades! I205 doesn't off-balance it because it's ten or more miles away! Granted, around ten miles once or twice isn't a big deal but five days a week, four or so weeks a month, twelve months a year... that's serious cash going to gas! Not to mention, the OR schools really need the cash. Whenever the state doesn't have enough money (which is quite often) they take it away from the school funds before anything.
The justification for the gas tax is that your tax is proportional to your usage of the infrastructure. The point of the gas tax is to raise funds for the State government. Private roads only disrupt the justification of the gas tax, not it's function. However the creation of an extensive toll system to tax mileage will undoubtedly make for a nice fat contract to be awarded to a private contractor somewhere in Oregon, and there can be the additional claim of "jobs created". Simply raising the existing gas tax would be far too efficient.
Yes and this will probably go to a minority for a higher price than it would go to a white male business owner. This is how the government works, you see...
Well, there's two problems with the gas tax.
1. As a road usage tax it doesn't take into consideration gas for equipment like lawn mowers and chainsaws. 2. It doesn't take into consideration driving done on private roads or roads not maintained by the government.
#2 is pretty big in Oregon due to the amount of logging they do. There's a lot of people who spend most of their time driving on logging trails. #2 is also the reason why GPS tracking of miles driven is dumb. It could very well count miles driven on private roads.
Logging roads aren't the only roads that aren't maintained, either... Ye olde Forest Service roads aren't maintained by the normal crew that maintains roads for the state (Forest Service does it- or used to and probably still does). There's so many places in OR that are really out in the middle of nowhere, as well. Anywhere that the normal state crews don't get to, the Forest Service or other agencies out there that can do the job steps in. Yes, there's also a plethora of private roads that property owners take care of... So, this makes one wonder if they're just going to monitor the roads in the big cities, as well as the main routes to and around the vacation spots? This might be another instance like the county income tax and they might also keep the tax on the pumps with the extra "monitored" tax. This is more like OR, really....
I agree. And it disables the incentive that the gas tax gives and it treats all mileage the same. In other words, if I'm driving a big heavy vehicle that wears the roads more than a smaller lighter vehicle, I pay the same. A tractor-trailer rig pays the same per mile as a Prius? I do understand it from the perspective of alternative fuel vehicles that are/will not pay the gas tax. We need to find alternative funding, but I don't like this solution.
Not to mention, it taxes those Washingtonians even more! Let's see how much of their money they can take before someone slaps us with a fine for ignoring the constitution!!
You know Oregon gas prices are usually lower than both Washington and California, so your not paying extra for someone to fill your tank. It provides jobs andsupposedly keeps things safe. Its really quite nice, if its raining and windy and crap, you don't have to get out of your car (unless its a pay inside place).
Umm... I'm not sure where you're at but when I lived in WA, the gas was WAY cheaper than in OR. It was even enough to make my penny-pinching dad drive up there to fill his tank. Actually, that was the only reason he visited us, really...
Grandma. Your Grandma - Making consumers pump gas would mean that your grandma is going to have to get out of the car into the snow on her walker to pump her gas, because most gas stations won't have Full Service, and the ones that do will charge far more than for self serve and your grandma won't be able to afford it. Yes, the newspapers really do get letters like that any time they propose changing the law. New Jersey's full-serve gas is almost always cheaper than self-serve across the border in PA or NY; I suspect Oregon's isnt'. (Here in California, gas stations have to pump gas for handicapped people for no extra charge, but our gas taxes are about 50 cents higher than most of the country's, so grandma's still getting ripped off.)
Actually, this isn't an issue at all. In WA state, they don't do the required pumping service. Several gas stations have the self or service pump option. You could seriously throw a rock and hit one. The price for pumping service (if you're not elderly or disabled) still makes gas cheaper in WA than OR (and OR has the enforced pumping service). Elderly and disabled can get free pumping service in WA... Not only does a handicap permit allow this to happen but also a drivers' license showing you are at such an age or older works just as well. Granted, I don't know if any of this has changed...
Income tax is the right way to do it. O how I wished everyone just used income tax. A few percentage points to the feds, a few to the state, and a few to the city/county. It would be so easy and clear cut. Any other form of taxation increases the scarcity of valuable goods. If the state needs more they raise the income tax a percentage point. Heck, if 10% is good enough for the Lord, it ought to be good enough for the government.
I hope you're joking... because this is all about Oregon and they're the ones who are big on income tax. WA state doesn't have any income tax and they're doing a lot better. Their schools have more sufficient funding than OR state, medical programs, too... roads are fixed more often/better than in OR... the list goes on. Sales tax has never stopped people from buying. When I lived in WA, I saw the stores packed with people. Why do they go there? They could have just hopped the border- oh, about ten miles away- and just bought it in Oregon.
I think I figured once that the federal government could live on 2-3% GRT. My mother hated the idea because she was about to sell a house, and that seemed unfair. I pointed out she just gave 6% to some fool who did nothing but put a sign in her yard - and how much was it worth to defend that land and guarantee her right to own it in the first place. She wasn't swayed :-)
Yeah but she grew up or was a young adult during the time that the government hid things from everyone and she's seen just how much she could trust them (which is less than the distance she could chuck the White House). I'm thinking it stems from that. Of course, I'm not saying that the government has changed its ways and isn't lying to us anymore but I think it's more like back then, people trusted it more and were violated for that trust. Now, we just know they're doing stuff behind our backs and grudgingly live with it.
One serious annoyance for me was that I worked about 3 miles into Oregon while living in Washington and had to pay OR state income tax while receiving no tangible benefits for this tax. I used about 6 miles of road per day, that's it. And to top it off, my state income tax didn't even give me the right to vote on HOW they spend my money.
So, back to your question. Sales tax is generally favorable to income tax in my opinion. I don't think it will ever work for Oregon though. They depend on workers from southern Washington to prop up their income tax and that would disappear if they switch to a sales tax. Also, literally billions of dollars annually are pumped into the Portland metro area by shoppers from WA state looking to avoid their own sales tax.
Yes, its illegal but it happens every day.
I've done the same... Lived in WA while working in OR. Well, I would have taken a WA job except that all the Oregonians took them. You know, they still get taxed for income by the state of Oregon... As far as going into OR for buying things.. I've done that but only because there were shops I preferred to buy from over there- or they had the only kind of that shop. The sales tax in WA... not so bad. There's probably better but $0.0765 per dollar doesn't add up that much. Groceries aren't taxed for sales, unless it's carbonated or alcoholic- or made for you, like from the deli. In Arkansas, even groceries are taxed. In WA, if you buy a big ticket item either in or out of state, you get taxed (aka car, boat, etc.). Property taxes are better in WA than OR... you don't get a county income tax in WA while you do in a good portion of OR (yes, this is on top of the normal state income tax and only if you're living in certain counties- wait, is this still going on- probably). Well, what this boils down to is that Oregon is a mess. They don't know how to spend money. New taxes are popping up all over the place but they're still cutting funds to schools and medical. Schools in OR have had to get rid of arts and music programs because of this. I don't know... but I'm voting for the conspiracy that the government is pocketing the money on this one... unless they really ARE idiots and can't count/manage money. Hmm... is it too late to change my vote...?
Actually, there are scientists that are repeating experiments with both blind and normal people. They are saying we are using a sonar-like process like bats do. They blindfold everyone and do tests with solid areas, soft areas, tap shoes, no tap shoes, etc. Solid surfaces with tap shoes worked the best over everyone. I think I saw this on one of the HD Discovery or Science channels on TV.
You need to figure out who is in the most control of this, as they will be the ones who figure out your rights, if you have any. Then, you can negotiate with them to get what you want, or decide not to do this. If they say they don't have any control over your rights and point at the college or another business, then you need to ask to have that in writing, with a signature and the date (dated material). This, you would keep for your records. As soon as they tell you who, though, start calling. Any time anyone says someone else controls something, ask for it in writing. If you just end up going in a huge circle, start asking to talk to managers or company CEO's. State your business and don't be emotional about it. I'm sure what you want is something they don't care a lot about, anyway. Whatever you do, ALWAYS get everything in writing, with a signature and date on it. Always... Documentation is the most important thing in the business world.
I'd say get him a computer just the year before kindergarten. Get something older, that's cheap- but just enough to put those learning games on it. Budget time for him to play on it. Make sure he can print out the awards or whatever the games have for completing the lessons. Until then, he doesn't at all need his own computer. Maybe you can prime him by sitting him on your lap at the desktop, opening Word and letting him type... or opening up Wikipedia, telling him what to type and also helping him find the keys. That will get him learning more. He's interested in electronics, now, because of the flashiness and because you're interested in them. Oh, btw, he's not precocious. My daughter got onto my computer while I was at work (while her dad was supposed to be watching her), accessed the network and deleted important windows files on his computer, causing him to have to format and re-install everything on his computer. Yes, he tried to repair and everything and no, she wasn't 2 years old... she was 6 MONTHS old! Yes, I lol'ed a lot when I got home that morning, from work...
Unfortunately, in the USA, high school math is like learning to drive a slot car (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slot_car) (arithmetic, algebra, maybe trig and geometry). (snip)
More like learning to drive a slot car after having learned how to in grade school... Even if you do get into algebra, geometry or trig, they still find a way to make it all just like what you did in grade school... Actually, though, I was in algebra in middle school. It was still too easy... Halfway through high school, the government offered to me to take a test. If I did well, I'd almost never have to set foot in a high school again. If I didn't, then I would... and if I did well on half, then half my time would be at the high school. You bet I made the most out of those two years of free college! Oh, excuse me... it was the cost of books plus seventy-five cents a quarter for a building fee. By the way, if you know what you're doing, you can buy a nice looking used book (aka, no tears or worn places- as well as pen markings) clean it up and sell it for more than you paid for it at the end of the quarter... Yeah, you learn even how to make a little extra money in college...
Yeah, I remember being completely bored in middle school and high school math. I always got an A or .05% away from one... but I never turned in one homework assignment. If the stuff was fun to do, I would do it in class, then throw it away in the garbage can. They should have advanced me but they didn't. Since they didn't do their work, I figured I didn't need to do mine... In college, I loved it, and learned a lot. High school... yeah, learned nothing. They kept me back in English, too, because I was the only one who came from the school I came from. Others who took Spanish or French instead of English scored worse in their English tests. Luckily, I had an English teacher who felt sorry for me and gave me different assignments than the normal curriculum.
I'm just glad I don't pay per message.....$140+/month just in messages alone....not counting the base plan ($70) and the additional line costs ($10/additional phone = $40) and junk fees, etc. I have to think that if you have teenage kids (at least girls), an unlimited texting plan is a must.
Layne
Lol, yeah, teenage girls can be really bad. However, in our household, my brother was worse than me. I wasn't really normal, though... If I wanted to get in touch with my friends, I knew where they were and if I had to, I BICYCLED to them! Actually, sometimes, I bicycled to them even though I could have driven. I think I loved the exercise... My brother, though, was ALWAYS on the phone... lol.
My account covers that, too.....but that requires that their friends be connected to whichever chat program they are using, etc. With text messaging, it works across all providers, regardless of what they use, it does "offline" messages better. Etc.
Layne
Mine worked just like however YIM, AIM and MSN worked and I could IM people on computers or phones the same. I was pretty happy with it. Any IM's where I sent a picture, though, counted towards my pictures sent.
(snip) In the old days, systems which were important after hours had staff on hand which could support them. Sure, they couldn't make system or design changes. But they could get into the systems to find the problem and fix them. Now we don't have that, we have lazy staff that play iPhone games at night.
My current method of getting rid of these calls is getting products with some resiliency so problems such as a cut T1 can auto fail over, thus no phone calls. Hardware RAID and backup PSU's in everything important. Redundant core networking. It costs more, but I think everyone benefits. But that can't solve all issues that come up at night.
The last place I worked at, if you worked night shift, you better well know how to fix things because the companies that made the machines have been out of business for around twenty years. We could only get parts because our plant's sister plant in Germany found a place over there that still makes the stuff. Granted, they never made the machines and really only supplied the parts... Anyway, normal operators at night were relied upon to be maintenance, with the maintenance staff. Sometimes, we even knew as much as or more than them. If the computer systems for the machines went down, we were totally screwed... they had to fly a guy in from Germany to fix it. DOS was easier to work with than these ancient things! Heck, half the computers on the NETWORK were only able to run DOS... so glad I wasn't in the IS department... The computer systems kept the inside of the machines at either around 450 degrees or 680 degrees (yes, celcius... since the machinery was mostly european) and when they went down, the machines cooled down uncontrollably. An uncontrolled cooling resulted in up to around $180,000 of damage... and that's just one side. Yes, this has happened before there, on a week DAY shift- and there was nothing anyone could do about it because not even the American engineers knew what to do, other than call for the guy from Germany. (I bet, though, if it happened on night shift, we would have figured out a way to make them work until they could get someone to actually fix the things. Granted, when we got something to work, they never looked at it... if it doesn't look broke, don't do anything to it at all?) Most of the time, though, the computers on the machines went into no communication because some idiot used a radio without grounding the antenna on some metal... those things interrupted all of our machinery. It's when they went into a coma when we would call maintenance and start doing anything we could do to get the things going... and seriously, it was all halfway-informed guesses... and our guesses were about what the maintenance and engineers could do- or better. Definitely a fail moment. Oh, another thing. We had a printer that controlled our output for the day, pretty much. If the printout didn't complete, we didn't move out the material. That printer had been in there since the 80's and had broken down several times. Every single time, we've had to fix it on night shift. Freaking day shift with all the support they had didn't even fix the thing! The last straw for the printer was on a weekend, when it just completely broke in pieces inside. We called someone, of course. Someone on-call, with a pager and cell phone. They didn't come. We were able to rubber band, paper-clip and glue the thing together long enough to last a day. The middle day, on day shift, it broke again and there was absolutely no resurrecting it. The next shift that came in for the other rotation screamed at the manager of our area that we broke the printer and caused them a mess that they had to move out and would cost their output... but of course, we had already sent a report on it every night of the weekend and so did our day shift. We called the freaking on-call person every hour all weekend, as well. The person who was supposed to come in and fix the thing should have been reprimanded but probably wasn't. Come the next day we worked, there was a shiny, new printer there... about time... geesh! Lol, my old work buddy who is still there is saying they're trying to do everything by the book now.. good luck in that...
Mine didn't get free text messaging but for $10 more, I got a media plan, which was 1000 free text a month, 50 photos and the YIM, AIM and MSN you could use were counted as text messages... you got enough free downloads for like one background a month or something but were severely limited on what was free... like I cared. My minutes were an absurd amount per month for one freaking phone and they added up until the end of December, so it ended up being an OMGWTFWHEREDIDALLTHESEMINUTESCOMEFROM??!?!!!? amount. Yeah... I think it was the $60/month plan or something... it was the least amount because I was like wth.. how can I use this all? Then, I thought of my mom and thought: oh, wait... Of course, I remembered that I usually ended phone calls with my mom on my own because if I didn't, I'd have cauliflower ear and no hearing left.
(snip)They basically use text messaging as an IM client without being locked in to a particular service (AOL, MSN, Yahoo, etc.).
Layne
I had a service where you could use YIM, AIM and MSN on the phone and it was billed as text messages, even though you were kind of on the internet. It's possible they have that as well...
Lol, notice how the 15 YO is more than the 17 YO... watch, the 10 YO one is going to go up drastically fairly soon... Good thing you're on a plan...
They still do it, though. I couldn't believe it when I got my first telemarketer on the cell phone... after that, I started answering with Dominoes Pizza, speaking. Would you like to hear our specials? Yeah, funny how there's no more spam callers... I miss my old system when I was a teenager... The telemarketers would call our listed number first, then the unlisted one (for the fax machine and computers) was next. When they called the second number, I'd let the fax machine pick it up... Now, I know there's a lot of deaf telemarketers out there...
Ugh, I'd be telling everyone to hang up before the message service picks it up and text me... how annoying! They obviously make a mint off people in Canada...
It's in the deal you get. I'm sure there's some charge for it in the package you get, if you read the fine text... but it's probably just worked into the overall amount of the thing.