Some people are very comfortable with the idea that others are lessor than they are and some are not. Not trying to be snarky, but that's the truth.
Had a friend with a pretty good business going who was involved in a patent lawsuit. They hired some fancy Beverly Hills attorney who was supposed to be the best. They were at a dinner at some nice place in Beverly Hills when, after dinner was over, his wife started collecting up the dishes and making neat piles for the waiter to take away. The attorney made a point of saying, "they have people for that".
If you have ever thought or uttered those words, you should consider partaking in some very deep self reflection.
You are incorrect. Some managers would fire waitstaff if they saw a customer stacking dishes.
For one, it IS the waitstaff's job to collect dishes. (Actually, technically it's the barback's.) For two, it sends the wrong message to the other diners in the restaurant. Thirdly, it sends a message to the waitstaff (intended or not) that the diner doesn't think that they are competent. Finally, if the diner has time to stack dishes, is means the waitstaff were not watching her closely enough.
It's like when you decline a bellhop or open the door yourself while the doorman is trying to get to it. You are trying not to treat them like they're lessor than you, but you are actually insulting them by even thinking this. They are there to do a job as a professional, and you are doing it for them in an amateur way in their workplace.
That's just about the most insulting thing you can do.
This is clearly not a long term solution, the oceans are warming and that is already causing concerns. Sticking a bunch of immersion heaters in the ocean is not exactly going to help.
You're totally right! We should put them in the arctic and antarctic instead! It's colder there!
Seems to assume all Twitter users are U.S. citizens.
That not allowing someone to talk to you is a violation of their right to free speech.
And that digital forums are 'public', despite plenty of homeless and impoverished citizens lacking access to them.
No, it assumes that the onus of proving that they aren't US citizens is on the President, not the citizen.
By using Twitter, President Trump is effectively creating a forum where US citizens can interact directly with the him as president. He cannot legally choose to selectively block citizens from that.
If he doesn't like that, he is free to not use Twitter. Honestly, that might be better for everyone in this situation.
So 'Free Returns' means 'Infinite number if Free Returns'?
Non-defective returns cost retailers money, retailers are not in the business of loaning out their products.
Obviously, the people banned did not get infinite number of free returns!
The point is that there is no limit discussed in Amazon's terms of service for either their Prime membership OR their Free Returns section. So if there IS a limit, there is a reasonable expectation that customer would be made aware of that limit before they exceed it and get banned for life from Amazon.
That said, Amazon appears to disagree. Here is the termination section of their Prime Membership terms
Termination by Us: We may terminate your Prime membership at our discretion without notice. If we do so, we will give you a prorated refund based on the number of full months remaining in your membership. However, we will not give any refund for termination related to conduct that we determine, in our discretion, violates these Terms or any applicable law, involves fraud or misuse of the Prime membership, or is harmful to our interests or another user. Our failure to insist upon or enforce your strict compliance with these Terms will not constitute a waiver of any of our rights.
You have just re-invented the established concept of panspermia!
Pieces of Mars blown into space from (large) meteorite impacts on Mars are also considered candidates for this type of genesis. Geologists believe the have actually found meteorites on Earth that originated from Mars.
Every day there are private airplanes flying around in our US airspace, who interact with air traffic control (of course), and who can ask that afterwards the records of their tail numbers not get published -- by the government. It could be that a person or company doesn't want people to know where they're going, who they belong to.
Now there are also people who make it their hobby to record the airplanes they see taking off + landing, and share this info with others. There are probably companies who do this too.
Is that illegal? How are you to pass a law against someone getting access to information that could completely legitimately be obtained by someone observing it in person? Does public information fall under the domain of privacy?
That is the problem with privacy -- I don't know that the definition of it is something that can cover purely public information. Not talking about Social Security numbers or personal health data or credit card info.
Is someone's observation of your activities in public, private information?
Your analogy isn't great because the hobbyists don't have a contract with the pilots.
In this situation, you are paying your cell provider for a service with the (apparently unwarranted) expectation of privacy. They are then selling that information to companies, who profit from your history by reselling that information to others or targeting you with advertising.
So a better analogy would be more like your doctor selling your medical history to a company, which then spammed you with STD antibiotic ads right after you got a little problem taken care of.
No one wants to lug around a PC computer to play a multiplayer game.
There is a place for everything for everybody,
BTW, I have been playing games since the 80's on all devices and still do, including PC.
If no one wants to lug around a PC, then there really isn't a place for everybody, eh?
If you RTFA and look at last figure (I know, I know...), you will see that console and PC game units ($ of market) have actually kept their shares or possibly even grown slightly. However, mobile gaming use has exploded.
So your assessment isn't really correct. Some people like to play on PCs. Some like to play consoles. An increasing number of people are playing games on their mobiles, which implies that mobile gaming is actually exploiting new customers or situations, not taking away from the existing gamer pool.
Personally, I think mobile gaming is great, but only when I am sitting on the toilet. Basically, it's good for me to poop on!
In my country its up to the parents to buy textbooks and materials for their children. Why isn't it like that in the USA? Or do only rich White or Asian parents do that, not the poor or Black or Hispanic parents?
I like how you worked a racist comment into that last (incomplete) clause.
>As far as apps being moved to a paid model, look at something as stupid as Solitaire. Free in Windows 7, pay to remove ads in Windows 10
I knew someone was going to mention Solitare! So if you offer a free app in your OS, you are obligated till the end of time to enhance, update and include it free in all future versions of the OS? Especially something as irrelevant as a card game?
Yes, you are... or it's basically preinstalled bloatware on an OS that a customer already paid for when they bought the license. A smoother approach would have been for MS to remove it and resell a fancier version as SolitarePlus.
Go ahead and act indignant, but don't be surprised when MS starts charging $1 each time you open Word.
No need to delete, they arent' sending you a copy of your data, it's the data itself. they send you the very same electrons you sent it to them with right back to you.
But what about the entangled electrons that they keep?
I'd have to delete my data to delete those, right?
The only realistic choice with the new headphones is to use Bluetooth. Unfortunately, Bluetooth has its own problems with connectivity, security, quality, and latency.
I think the only realistic choice is to go back to a fucking standard headphone jack that I can use WHILE charging my phone with the separate power jack.
Last time I was at a cash only restaurant, I only had 3 bills in the denominations of $5, $50, and $100 dollars. My bill was $15.
So I try to pay (at the register) with my credit card and they say "cash only". At that point I am excited, because I actually have cash, which I rarely bother to carry. So I pull out the $50 and they would not take it because of fear of counterfeit dollars. They said they won't take any bill higher than $20.
I was like "uh, your sign says 'cash only', it doesn't say 'cash only in bills less than $50'. If you don't take credit cards, you actually have to accept the cash".
Long story short, they let me have my meal for free because they were afraid to lose money by making change with a possible counterfeit $50. I eventually went back later and repaid them because I felt bad, but it highlights the issues that they're facing: Afraid to take cash, afraid to pay the credit card fees.
It also highlights how fucked up the money situation has become in the US. Some places won't take ANY cash. Some places won't take bills over a certain amount. Some places won't take credit cards. And if you are going somewhere new YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT THEY WILL TAKE! You used to be able to just leave the house with a $50 bill and be good to go. Now you have to have a bunch of $20s, your credit card, your ID (in case they check), and maybe your phone to pay with that. Things seem to be getting harder, not easier.
I don't want to live in a society where our location is tracked 24/7/365 whenever we buy food, gas, or other necessities. Cash = the ability for people to go off the grid and maintain their privacy.
I don't want to do business with anyone who's doing their part to erode that ability. Thus, I'll vote with my cash and pay cash.
It's not that I personally care about it, but I want to live in a world where people can run away and drop out of sight. It's an important safety valve against authoritarianism.
How do you get your cash? From a bank ATM? That tracks you?
If you really want to go incognito, get a fake credit identity and burner phone to start playing with the big boys.
Using cash and not having a cell phone actually makes you stand out like a sore thumb nowadays.
The average salary of a school teacher in the US is $38K, and you have to have a Bachelors and (usually) a Masters degree to get that job. This is the person who is teaching your children and went to college for at least 5 years to do it.
Is it really unreasonable that someone who literally pushes boxes for Amazon and does not need any advanced degree would make $14K less than that?
What we should be upset about is how the salaries in the US have spread out in the past 30 years, which basically kills social mobility. My grandparents could work their factory jobs (with no college degrees or even high school ones) and then come home to their house (which they owned) and afford to send their kids to college. There's no way that you can do that nowadays as a factory worker and you are lucky if you can even do that as a teacher or police officer.
Salaries for those lower skilled jobs need to come up, way up, even if things need to cost more to make that happen. Otherwise we are effectively sliding back into a form of indentured servitude.
This is the downside of economy plus - Not far enough ahead in the cabin to be in business class and ahead of the engines. Not far enough back to be behind the engines. You're right in line.
Technically, you have, *on average*, a lower chance of dying on an airplane if you are sitting in the back of the cabin and middle of the row.
Keep that in mind when you get that middle seat against the toilet in the back.
I am trying to understand what he did that was illegal?
He downloaded documents that the government posted on the internet, by simply "guessing" the URL, which incrementally increased from the URL that he was given by the government?
Yup, looks like a case of the government trying to offset blame to me!
Will the robot be the one getting paid for its services and retaining assets that can be sued? If so, we can consider debating this.
But if the company is getting paid for the robot's services and trying to push the legal responsibility onto the asset-less robot, than this is a complete farce.
Also, one would hope that the programming will contain a series of unalterable moral checks to prevent the robot from "learning" that it's OK to hurt people or property.
"It's such an enormous out of time. But they think 10**139 years is 139."
They probably think that because no one is using syntax a normal person can understand. Normal people are taught that 10^139 is the right way to express this value.
People who can program understand 10**139 is the same thing.
No one knows that (as TFA says) 10x139 is the same as 10^139 because it isn't. 10x139 is 1390.
The bomber was white, Christian, home-schooled, anti-LGBT and conservative. This fits the profile of almost all domestic terrorists in the US. Why wasn't he on the FBI's radar?
Because that profile is quote close to those currently leading our nation?
I may have invented the web, but you make it what it is. And it's up to all of us to build a web that reflects our hopes & fulfils our dreams more than it magnifies our fears & deepens our divisions... Get involved. Care about your data. It belongs to you.
Unfortunately, too many people did get involved, which allowed the corporations to build a web that preys on humanity's base values: greed, fear, catering to the lowest common demoninator and social stratification.
Zuckerberg (who is really no different than a corporation) is making a shitload of money off the web that he has perverted. He has no incentive to change it.
Also, "activists, academics and web users" have no ability to make significant changes to the web against governments and corporations, all of the control is on the side of the government and corporations who own all of the infrastructure. We've even see the academic side of the web weaponized for corporate profit in the last decade (researchgate).
Evolution of the existing web will be the only real fix to this issue. And it will continue to be a cat and mouse game between academics and corporations.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes.
Some people are very comfortable with the idea that others are lessor than they are and some are not. Not trying to be snarky, but that's the truth.
Had a friend with a pretty good business going who was involved in a patent lawsuit. They hired some fancy Beverly Hills attorney who was supposed to be the best. They were at a dinner at some nice place in Beverly Hills when, after dinner was over, his wife started collecting up the dishes and making neat piles for the waiter to take away. The attorney made a point of saying, "they have people for that".
If you have ever thought or uttered those words, you should consider partaking in some very deep self reflection.
You are incorrect. Some managers would fire waitstaff if they saw a customer stacking dishes.
For one, it IS the waitstaff's job to collect dishes. (Actually, technically it's the barback's.) For two, it sends the wrong message to the other diners in the restaurant. Thirdly, it sends a message to the waitstaff (intended or not) that the diner doesn't think that they are competent. Finally, if the diner has time to stack dishes, is means the waitstaff were not watching her closely enough.
It's like when you decline a bellhop or open the door yourself while the doorman is trying to get to it. You are trying not to treat them like they're lessor than you, but you are actually insulting them by even thinking this. They are there to do a job as a professional, and you are doing it for them in an amateur way in their workplace.
That's just about the most insulting thing you can do.
This is clearly not a long term solution, the oceans are warming and that is already causing concerns. Sticking a bunch of immersion heaters in the ocean is not exactly going to help.
You're totally right! We should put them in the arctic and antarctic instead! It's colder there!
Seems to assume all Twitter users are U.S. citizens.
That not allowing someone to talk to you is a violation of their right to free speech.
And that digital forums are 'public', despite plenty of homeless and impoverished citizens lacking access to them.
No, it assumes that the onus of proving that they aren't US citizens is on the President, not the citizen.
By using Twitter, President Trump is effectively creating a forum where US citizens can interact directly with the him as president. He cannot legally choose to selectively block citizens from that.
If he doesn't like that, he is free to not use Twitter. Honestly, that might be better for everyone in this situation.
So 'Free Returns' means 'Infinite number if Free Returns'?
Non-defective returns cost retailers money, retailers are not in the business of loaning out their products.
Obviously, the people banned did not get infinite number of free returns!
The point is that there is no limit discussed in Amazon's terms of service for either their Prime membership OR their Free Returns section. So if there IS a limit, there is a reasonable expectation that customer would be made aware of that limit before they exceed it and get banned for life from Amazon.
That said, Amazon appears to disagree. Here is the termination section of their Prime Membership terms
Termination by Us:
We may terminate your Prime membership at our discretion without notice. If we do so, we will give you a prorated refund based on the number of full months remaining in your membership. However, we will not give any refund for termination related to conduct that we determine, in our discretion, violates these Terms or any applicable law, involves fraud or misuse of the Prime membership, or is harmful to our interests or another user. Our failure to insist upon or enforce your strict compliance with these Terms will not constitute a waiver of any of our rights.
You have just re-invented the established concept of panspermia!
Pieces of Mars blown into space from (large) meteorite impacts on Mars are also considered candidates for this type of genesis. Geologists believe the have actually found meteorites on Earth that originated from Mars.
Let me ask about a different situation.
Every day there are private airplanes flying around in our US airspace, who interact with air traffic control (of course), and who can ask that afterwards the records of their tail numbers not get published -- by the government. It could be that a person or company doesn't want people to know where they're going, who they belong to.
Now there are also people who make it their hobby to record the airplanes they see taking off + landing, and share this info with others. There are probably companies who do this too.
Is that illegal? How are you to pass a law against someone getting access to information that could completely legitimately be obtained by someone observing it in person? Does public information fall under the domain of privacy?
That is the problem with privacy -- I don't know that the definition of it is something that can cover purely public information. Not talking about Social Security numbers or personal health data or credit card info.
Is someone's observation of your activities in public, private information?
Your analogy isn't great because the hobbyists don't have a contract with the pilots.
In this situation, you are paying your cell provider for a service with the (apparently unwarranted) expectation of privacy. They are then selling that information to companies, who profit from your history by reselling that information to others or targeting you with advertising.
So a better analogy would be more like your doctor selling your medical history to a company, which then spammed you with STD antibiotic ads right after you got a little problem taken care of.
Technically, you cannot travel in a straight line for ANY distance on the surface of a sphere, right?
At best you can have a single point of tangency.
I mean, come on, if you're going to be pedantic, let's really be pedantic!
No one wants to lug around a PC computer to play a multiplayer game.
There is a place for everything for everybody,
BTW, I have been playing games since the 80's on all devices and still do, including PC.
If no one wants to lug around a PC, then there really isn't a place for everybody, eh?
If you RTFA and look at last figure (I know, I know...), you will see that console and PC game units ($ of market) have actually kept their shares or possibly even grown slightly. However, mobile gaming use has exploded.
So your assessment isn't really correct. Some people like to play on PCs. Some like to play consoles. An increasing number of people are playing games on their mobiles, which implies that mobile gaming is actually exploiting new customers or situations, not taking away from the existing gamer pool.
Personally, I think mobile gaming is great, but only when I am sitting on the toilet. Basically, it's good for me to poop on!
In my country its up to the parents to buy textbooks and materials for their children. Why isn't it like that in the USA? Or do only rich White or Asian parents do that, not the poor or Black or Hispanic parents?
I like how you worked a racist comment into that last (incomplete) clause.
But it's a little different when China is on your Northern border and likes the buffer that you provide from Democracy.
Kind of like how the US feels about Canada.
>As far as apps being moved to a paid model, look at something as stupid as Solitaire. Free in Windows 7, pay to remove ads in Windows 10
I knew someone was going to mention Solitare! So if you offer a free app in your OS, you are obligated till the end of time to enhance, update and include it free in all future versions of the OS? Especially something as irrelevant as a card game?
Yes, you are... or it's basically preinstalled bloatware on an OS that a customer already paid for when they bought the license. A smoother approach would have been for MS to remove it and resell a fancier version as SolitarePlus.
Go ahead and act indignant, but don't be surprised when MS starts charging $1 each time you open Word.
No need to delete, they arent' sending you a copy of your data, it's the data itself. they send you the very same electrons you sent it to them with right back to you.
But what about the entangled electrons that they keep?
I'd have to delete my data to delete those, right?
The only realistic choice with the new headphones is to use Bluetooth. Unfortunately, Bluetooth has its own problems with connectivity, security, quality, and latency.
I think the only realistic choice is to go back to a fucking standard headphone jack that I can use WHILE charging my phone with the separate power jack.
Last time I was at a cash only restaurant, I only had 3 bills in the denominations of $5, $50, and $100 dollars. My bill was $15.
So I try to pay (at the register) with my credit card and they say "cash only". At that point I am excited, because I actually have cash, which I rarely bother to carry. So I pull out the $50 and they would not take it because of fear of counterfeit dollars. They said they won't take any bill higher than $20.
I was like "uh, your sign says 'cash only', it doesn't say 'cash only in bills less than $50'. If you don't take credit cards, you actually have to accept the cash".
Long story short, they let me have my meal for free because they were afraid to lose money by making change with a possible counterfeit $50. I eventually went back later and repaid them because I felt bad, but it highlights the issues that they're facing: Afraid to take cash, afraid to pay the credit card fees.
It also highlights how fucked up the money situation has become in the US. Some places won't take ANY cash. Some places won't take bills over a certain amount. Some places won't take credit cards. And if you are going somewhere new YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT THEY WILL TAKE! You used to be able to just leave the house with a $50 bill and be good to go. Now you have to have a bunch of $20s, your credit card, your ID (in case they check), and maybe your phone to pay with that. Things seem to be getting harder, not easier.
I don't want to live in a society where our location is tracked 24/7/365 whenever we buy food, gas, or other necessities. Cash = the ability for people to go off the grid and maintain their privacy.
I don't want to do business with anyone who's doing their part to erode that ability. Thus, I'll vote with my cash and pay cash.
It's not that I personally care about it, but I want to live in a world where people can run away and drop out of sight. It's an important safety valve against authoritarianism.
How do you get your cash? From a bank ATM? That tracks you?
If you really want to go incognito, get a fake credit identity and burner phone to start playing with the big boys.
Using cash and not having a cell phone actually makes you stand out like a sore thumb nowadays.
The average salary of a school teacher in the US is $38K, and you have to have a Bachelors and (usually) a Masters degree to get that job. This is the person who is teaching your children and went to college for at least 5 years to do it.
Is it really unreasonable that someone who literally pushes boxes for Amazon and does not need any advanced degree would make $14K less than that?
What we should be upset about is how the salaries in the US have spread out in the past 30 years, which basically kills social mobility. My grandparents could work their factory jobs (with no college degrees or even high school ones) and then come home to their house (which they owned) and afford to send their kids to college. There's no way that you can do that nowadays as a factory worker and you are lucky if you can even do that as a teacher or police officer.
Salaries for those lower skilled jobs need to come up, way up, even if things need to cost more to make that happen. Otherwise we are effectively sliding back into a form of indentured servitude.
A great wall. And make someone else, I don't know who, pay for it.
This is the downside of economy plus - Not far enough ahead in the cabin to be in business class and ahead of the engines. Not far enough back to be behind the engines. You're right in line.
Technically, you have, *on average*, a lower chance of dying on an airplane if you are sitting in the back of the cabin and middle of the row.
Keep that in mind when you get that middle seat against the toilet in the back.
I am trying to understand what he did that was illegal?
He downloaded documents that the government posted on the internet, by simply "guessing" the URL, which incrementally increased from the URL that he was given by the government?
Yup, looks like a case of the government trying to offset blame to me!
Interesting, but contrived dilemma.
Will the robot be the one getting paid for its services and retaining assets that can be sued? If so, we can consider debating this.
But if the company is getting paid for the robot's services and trying to push the legal responsibility onto the asset-less robot, than this is a complete farce.
Also, one would hope that the programming will contain a series of unalterable moral checks to prevent the robot from "learning" that it's OK to hurt people or property.
Really. If it's critical, you have have two internet access points, at least.
"It's such an enormous out of time. But they think 10**139 years is 139."
They probably think that because no one is using syntax a normal person can understand. Normal people are taught that 10^139 is the right way to express this value.
People who can program understand 10**139 is the same thing.
No one knows that (as TFA says) 10x139 is the same as 10^139 because it isn't. 10x139 is 1390.
You know, it's a corporation thing... The shareholders made me do it.
The bomber was white, Christian, home-schooled, anti-LGBT and conservative. This fits the profile of almost all domestic terrorists in the US. Why wasn't he on the FBI's radar?
Because that profile is quote close to those currently leading our nation?
Wait, was that a rhetorical question?
I may have invented the web, but you make it what it is. And it's up to all of us to build a web that reflects our hopes & fulfils our dreams more than it magnifies our fears & deepens our divisions... Get involved. Care about your data. It belongs to you.
Unfortunately, too many people did get involved, which allowed the corporations to build a web that preys on humanity's base values: greed, fear, catering to the lowest common demoninator and social stratification.
Zuckerberg (who is really no different than a corporation) is making a shitload of money off the web that he has perverted. He has no incentive to change it.
Also, "activists, academics and web users" have no ability to make significant changes to the web against governments and corporations, all of the control is on the side of the government and corporations who own all of the infrastructure. We've even see the academic side of the web weaponized for corporate profit in the last decade (researchgate).
Evolution of the existing web will be the only real fix to this issue. And it will continue to be a cat and mouse game between academics and corporations.