Having horrible credit has made me significantly less vulnerable for years.
A friend and I were robbed at gunpoint once after a night out. We had both started a new job that day and had our social security cards on us (employer needed copies, we went out immediately after work), check books and, obviously, drivers' licenses, everything.
This was about 6 years ago. We're still both cleaning up our credit. Him, from identity theft. Me, from my own stupidity; they weren't able to open a single account in my name.
Sadly, it appears that I'll be free and clear long before he will.
Even at $24.95/mo, you'd be saving 60 cents a year on OS upgrades by ditching OSX. $25 is the break-even point for you OS X'ers.
Windows users (I'm talking about yoru average user, not your average/.-reading user), on the other hand, what, with having to pay for AV, pay for virus removal when the AV fails (read: they forget to update), pay for electricity while they can't use their computer during multiple reboots each month for updates and crashes, paying for new hardware every time a service pack is released because they insist on buying the rock-bottom cheapest most bare-bones system that can barely run the OS. Well, for them, the break-even point would be closer to $100/mo.
Linux, BSD and Solaris users, well, we're a fun bunch. You see, $0.00/mo is our break even point. Until, that is, you add freedom to the equation. That, my friends, is priceless. You couldn't pay us enough to switch.
I think he means he trusts no company with all of the data he created. The data they create themselves is theirs to lose or corrupt as they see fit.
I know if MS lost my project proposal an hour before a meeting where I am supposed to present it, I'd be pretty pissed. If Equifax, Experian and Trans Union lost my credit report, I'd be overjoyed to get a fresh start.
Being that the internet is a series of tubes, rather than a truck, Teddy didn't feel that he should have to pay taxes; money which would have been used partially to maintain roads.
Roads are obsolete. So are taxes, apparently. Just ask Sen. Stevens.
HIV. It's about as active as scrabble and gets just about as much attention from the general populace. A ton of people have it but nobody really talks about it anymore.
Here's the (general US population's) problem, as I see it.
Copyright was created to ensure that artists (I do consider coding to be an art-form) had an opportunity to earn income from their work before it could be freely copied or any derivatives could be made of it.
This led to fewer creative works being created in a given time frame than before, as most works are derivative of existing works. The best stories are those which expand on what we already know, right?
The government and pseudo-fascist corporations have begun to realize three things. First, that we, view copyright, in its current state, as a problem. Second, that they make a ton of money by exploiting the current state of the copyright system. Third, that by allowing us access to any creative means, they are allowing us the resources to overcome the current copyright system.
Thus, the ever-increasing system of restricting creativity, until it is illegal to express any thought contrary to their view of being paid for every peak and valley of every sound and light wave that we receive, which could have possibly originated from one of their exploited works.
Look through my post history. I don't typically post this kind of conspiracy-theorist drivel. I feel strongly enough about this issue in particular, however, that I will not sit idly and watch what little remaining freedom we have in this once great country be stolen from us, just as our once great wealth has been.
Now is the time to act. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Not next month. Not when Bush is replaced by the next pseudo-democratic-republican leader and you realize they're lying, too.
Now.
Before we lose the ability to create.
The terrorists don't have to fight anymore. We're doing it to ourselves.
We vote our freedom away by electing officials who have a proven track record of deception. We spend our freedom away by buying from companies who restrict how we can use our (or their, depending who you ask) products. We give our freedom away by continuing to do business with corporations who ship jobs and, with those jobs, our economic strength, to other countries, while many on our own soil can not find employment.
We routinely sell our freedom to the highest bidder and can do nothing but cry in disappointment when they never pay out.
No. I don't own an iPhone. I won't own an iPhone until it can cut and paste (and not require severe hacking to be usable). Even if I did own an iPhone, I couldn't have done the cut/paste with it; the iPhone still can't cut and paste.
Oops! It started with me almost quoting and replying to the wrong post and ended with me not trimming the quote properly, which I then cut and pasted into a reply to the CORRECT post.
I was referring to big-name artists at large venues. My brother-in-law is the lead singer in Voice of Addiction (http://www.voiceofaddiction.com). I know very well how it works for smaller bands, most of whom are not signed by the RIAA and, thus, are unaffected by the RIAA's low payout for CD sales.
Yes, the artist gets 5 or 10 cents from the CD sales, while the RIAA and label split the remaining $15-40.
When you go to a concert, the artist has paid for the venue and gets every cent of ticket sales (ticket vendors tack on their own fee, but it's the buyer who pays that, not the artist). Most of the time, the RIAA gets nothing in such a situation. This is how we want it to work, until the RIAA is no more.
Once the RIAA is gone, their slaves^H^H^H^H^H^Hartists can negotiate better contracts with other labels or spend their concert earnings to create, market and distribute their music themselves. They'd surely make more than a nickel on each sale that way.
For the time being, yes. Once the RIAA breathes its final breath, those artists will have a chance to negotiate a better contract with another company; or use what money they did make as RIAA slaves to make and market their music themselves.
Then, they'll make money. Lots more than they currently do.
Slashdot Mirror
I turned 26 in December last year. I got my first credit card in March of this year, through no lack of trying.
Yes. Bad credit really does work.
Having horrible credit has made me significantly less vulnerable for years.
A friend and I were robbed at gunpoint once after a night out. We had both started a new job that day and had our social security cards on us (employer needed copies, we went out immediately after work), check books and, obviously, drivers' licenses, everything.
This was about 6 years ago. We're still both cleaning up our credit. Him, from identity theft. Me, from my own stupidity; they weren't able to open a single account in my name.
Sadly, it appears that I'll be free and clear long before he will.
Power consumption on my server alone is more than that!
Yet another reason you might be interested in this. I'm sure the thin client they'd sell for this uses a ton less.
Oops, meand to mod this Underrated, not Overrated... This ought to fix that!
BIOS updates
$150 every 6mo for an upgrade. That's $300/yr.
Even at $24.95/mo, you'd be saving 60 cents a year on OS upgrades by ditching OSX. $25 is the break-even point for you OS X'ers.
Windows users (I'm talking about yoru average user, not your average /.-reading user), on the other hand, what, with having to pay for AV, pay for virus removal when the AV fails (read: they forget to update), pay for electricity while they can't use their computer during multiple reboots each month for updates and crashes, paying for new hardware every time a service pack is released because they insist on buying the rock-bottom cheapest most bare-bones system that can barely run the OS. Well, for them, the break-even point would be closer to $100/mo.
Linux, BSD and Solaris users, well, we're a fun bunch. You see, $0.00/mo is our break even point. Until, that is, you add freedom to the equation. That, my friends, is priceless. You couldn't pay us enough to switch.
I think he means he trusts no company with all of the data he created. The data they create themselves is theirs to lose or corrupt as they see fit.
I know if MS lost my project proposal an hour before a meeting where I am supposed to present it, I'd be pretty pissed. If Equifax, Experian and Trans Union lost my credit report, I'd be overjoyed to get a fresh start.
I'm not getting it. Anyone care to enlighten me?
Oh and...
P.S. -- Who's the moron now?
Should I fax it to you, or is a simple scan and email enough?
I was actually going for insightful, rather than funny. A ton of people have HIV but nobody really talks about it. Just like Scrabble.
Being that the internet is a series of tubes, rather than a truck, Teddy didn't feel that he should have to pay taxes; money which would have been used partially to maintain roads.
Roads are obsolete. So are taxes, apparently. Just ask Sen. Stevens.
HIV. It's about as active as scrabble and gets just about as much attention from the general populace. A ton of people have it but nobody really talks about it anymore.
Here's the (general US population's) problem, as I see it.
Copyright was created to ensure that artists (I do consider coding to be an art-form) had an opportunity to earn income from their work before it could be freely copied or any derivatives could be made of it.
This led to fewer creative works being created in a given time frame than before, as most works are derivative of existing works. The best stories are those which expand on what we already know, right?
The government and pseudo-fascist corporations have begun to realize three things. First, that we, view copyright, in its current state, as a problem. Second, that they make a ton of money by exploiting the current state of the copyright system. Third, that by allowing us access to any creative means, they are allowing us the resources to overcome the current copyright system.
Thus, the ever-increasing system of restricting creativity, until it is illegal to express any thought contrary to their view of being paid for every peak and valley of every sound and light wave that we receive, which could have possibly originated from one of their exploited works.
Look through my post history. I don't typically post this kind of conspiracy-theorist drivel. I feel strongly enough about this issue in particular, however, that I will not sit idly and watch what little remaining freedom we have in this once great country be stolen from us, just as our once great wealth has been.
Now is the time to act. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Not next month. Not when Bush is replaced by the next pseudo-democratic-republican leader and you realize they're lying, too.
Now.
Before we lose the ability to create.
The terrorists don't have to fight anymore. We're doing it to ourselves.
We vote our freedom away by electing officials who have a proven track record of deception. We spend our freedom away by buying from companies who restrict how we can use our (or their, depending who you ask) products. We give our freedom away by continuing to do business with corporations who ship jobs and, with those jobs, our economic strength, to other countries, while many on our own soil can not find employment.
We routinely sell our freedom to the highest bidder and can do nothing but cry in disappointment when they never pay out.
Right now. This is the only time we have. Act.
Property exists because of limited resources.
And for those who believe in Intellectual Property, intellect is a limited resource!
As I'm sitting here, sniffing a Vista DVD, I have to say, shit it may be, but stink it does not.
Insensitive I may be, but I'll vouch for his sensitivity.
And I can personally verify the claim regarding her virginity.
That's why I never use my Vista desktop. If I touch it, I have to reboot it.
No. I don't own an iPhone. I won't own an iPhone until it can cut and paste (and not require severe hacking to be usable). Even if I did own an iPhone, I couldn't have done the cut/paste with it; the iPhone still can't cut and paste.
But it does blend.
Oops! It started with me almost quoting and replying to the wrong post and ended with me not trimming the quote properly, which I then cut and pasted into a reply to the CORRECT post.
I guess you all know what I value most, now. :)
The iPhone's lack of MMS... ...rather than texting me a login page with a "username" and "password" to login with that I can't cut and paste.
That's because you value your laziness more than your privacy.
The iPhone can cut and paste now?
I think using python at all results in a love/hate relationship with python.
I was referring to big-name artists at large venues. My brother-in-law is the lead singer in Voice of Addiction (http://www.voiceofaddiction.com). I know very well how it works for smaller bands, most of whom are not signed by the RIAA and, thus, are unaffected by the RIAA's low payout for CD sales.
Yes, the artist gets 5 or 10 cents from the CD sales, while the RIAA and label split the remaining $15-40.
When you go to a concert, the artist has paid for the venue and gets every cent of ticket sales (ticket vendors tack on their own fee, but it's the buyer who pays that, not the artist). Most of the time, the RIAA gets nothing in such a situation. This is how we want it to work, until the RIAA is no more.
Once the RIAA is gone, their slaves^H^H^H^H^H^Hartists can negotiate better contracts with other labels or spend their concert earnings to create, market and distribute their music themselves. They'd surely make more than a nickel on each sale that way.
For the time being, yes. Once the RIAA breathes its final breath, those artists will have a chance to negotiate a better contract with another company; or use what money they did make as RIAA slaves to make and market their music themselves.
Then, they'll make money. Lots more than they currently do.