O.K. I've had my coffee and calmed down a little. Sorry about the name calling; this is a very emotional issue for me. As if anyone was interested, my nightmare began with a girlfriend using those evil, pre-approved apps. I thought I'd shredded. It was a nasty betrayal and an expensive mess to fix.
Let me calmly reiterate: fixing disputes over bad charges to one's card is easy, fixing identity theft is not (that IS the topic, right?). At least it wasn't ten years ago; maybe the process has gotten more streamlined now that it's such a common issue.
The reason they get away with it is because people like you preach hopelessness and people don't fight back, so it's easy to do.
Listen... I don't know you and you don't know me. Please, SHUT THE FUCK UP. If you had ANY idea how many letters I wrote, how many phone calls, the nights of sleeplessness, the wrangling with my lawyer! I've got a credit score in the high 700s. Trust me, I know how to manage these things.
I have successfully fought several erroneous charges on my credit cards. That, as you say, is easy. This wasn't like that (you annoying fucking moron!) --it was identity theft and the credit card company didn't want to see it my way. This was ten years ago, before the problem was common or easy to deal with.
Have you been the victim of identity theft? O.K. Then SHUT THE FUCK UP.
Can MCI provide you with a copy of a document you signed regarding the charges? If not (and if I'm not mistaken), what they're doing is illegal.
Please forgive me for sounding condescending, but parent and grandparent posts are COMPLETELY missing the point. It doesn't matter if it's illegal, all that matters is the they (giant, godless corporations) have infinitely deep pockets and an army of lawyers, while you have enough trouble making the rent. They are COUNTING on this.
As long as they're vastly more powerful than us, it is usually to their advantage to create problems for you that you may (or may not) pay to make go away. I finally paid a lawyer over $5,000 to correct MBNA's refusal to stop reporting credit fraud as mine. Once the 100 page brief was filed with the court and MBNA saw that there would be financial consequences, they finally backed off.
There's a huge difference between what's illegal and what's prosecuted.
I'm guessing you're a white male. Isn't that amazing I could divine that just from the content of your post?
Who are the imprisoned people with no access to lawyers?
With some of the public defenders we've got --ever hear that phrase "you get what you pay for?"
People in poverty? Look at the studies- the average family in poverty has a color tv and other ammenities. The poorest people in the U.S. live better than 99% of the people in some countries.
And, although many selfish conservative types might agree that adults deserve to suffer if they aren't successful, what about the kids? http://www.secondharvest.org/learn_about_hunger/ch ild_hunger_facts.html http://www.savethechildren.org/usa/
Did they personally do something to you to deserve an insurmountable handicap in pursuing the American dream? You do believe in the promise of America, that everyone is given the opportunity to succeed, right?
No easy access to medical services? Where did you get that from? Anyone in the U.S. can walk into a hospital, and they will be treated.
Yeah... And maybe they'll take you to the third hospital the ambulance passes. You might even live that long. Or, if you're lucky, they'll see the insurance card in your wallet and take you to the nearest emergency room.
Have you ever been to the U.S.? Where are you getting your facts?
It's all over the Internet. However, I don't think anybody is saying the U.S. isn't a great place to live, just that we could do better. Don't you believe in self-improvement?
Um... I think you forgot to preface your ideas with IANAP (I am NOT a psychologist). It is real and I'd bet my life on it. I've known people that can't even follow an action movie because of ADHD. It is, however, over-diagnosed and there's truth in your assertion that drug companies are to blame. The over-diagnosis is also emblematic of the cultural draw to find the quick fix --a pill and a no-effort solution for every problem. A lot of these kids would be fine with just a little physical correction (if you know what I mean) from their parents. And some truly need pharmacological and behavioral help.
(Just for the record, I trained to be a psychologist before coming to my senses and following a career in coding.)
So... Anybody like to speculate on how MS thinks they'll do it?
- Neural nets?
- Some manipulation of Cyc or other AI?
- Data mining?
- Evil profiles of users and what they're likely to search for?
- Harvesting all of Google's (and del.icio.us) results and tuning them?
- An army of third-world page taggers?
- Drugs in the water supply to make us THINK the results are superior?
Couldn't agree more. The evil, baby-eating scum at the RIAA need to decide, are they selling intellectual property or physical property? If it's intellectual, then I should never have to purchase my music again --in fact, they can give me fresh MP3s of all the stupid cassettes and 8-tracks I bought as a kid! If it's physical, then I guess they're losing nothing when I download a song without paying them.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah... It's sad when paid writers can't get it right.
- 1/qid=1142947630/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-3152913-4802223? _encoding=UTF8) Morris Berman points out the spelling mistakes in Roman graffiti near the fall of Rome, in addition to many other parallels with the current state of our empire.
In The Twilight of American Culture (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/039332169X/sr=8
O.K. I've had my coffee and calmed down a little. Sorry about the name calling; this is a very emotional issue for me. As if anyone was interested, my nightmare began with a girlfriend using those evil, pre-approved apps. I thought I'd shredded. It was a nasty betrayal and an expensive mess to fix.
Let me calmly reiterate: fixing disputes over bad charges to one's card is easy, fixing identity theft is not (that IS the topic, right?). At least it wasn't ten years ago; maybe the process has gotten more streamlined now that it's such a common issue.
I have successfully fought several erroneous charges on my credit cards. That, as you say, is easy. This wasn't like that (you annoying fucking moron!) --it was identity theft and the credit card company didn't want to see it my way. This was ten years ago, before the problem was common or easy to deal with.
Have you been the victim of identity theft? O.K. Then SHUT THE FUCK UP.
</flame>
As long as they're vastly more powerful than us, it is usually to their advantage to create problems for you that you may (or may not) pay to make go away. I finally paid a lawyer over $5,000 to correct MBNA's refusal to stop reporting credit fraud as mine. Once the 100 page brief was filed with the court and MBNA saw that there would be financial consequences, they finally backed off.
There's a huge difference between what's illegal and what's prosecuted.
http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_sna
And, although many selfish conservative types might agree that adults deserve to suffer if they aren't successful, what about the kids?
http://www.secondharvest.org/learn_about_hunger/c
http://www.savethechildren.org/usa/
Did they personally do something to you to deserve an insurmountable handicap in pursuing the American dream? You do believe in the promise of America, that everyone is given the opportunity to succeed, right? Yeah... And maybe they'll take you to the third hospital the ambulance passes. You might even live that long. Or, if you're lucky, they'll see the insurance card in your wallet and take you to the nearest emergency room. It's all over the Internet. However, I don't think anybody is saying the U.S. isn't a great place to live, just that we could do better. Don't you believe in self-improvement?
(Just for the record, I trained to be a psychologist before coming to my senses and following a career in coding.)
So... Anybody like to speculate on how MS thinks they'll do it? - Neural nets? - Some manipulation of Cyc or other AI? - Data mining? - Evil profiles of users and what they're likely to search for? - Harvesting all of Google's (and del.icio.us) results and tuning them? - An army of third-world page taggers? - Drugs in the water supply to make us THINK the results are superior?
Couldn't agree more. The evil, baby-eating scum at the RIAA need to decide, are they selling intellectual property or physical property? If it's intellectual, then I should never have to purchase my music again --in fact, they can give me fresh MP3s of all the stupid cassettes and 8-tracks I bought as a kid! If it's physical, then I guess they're losing nothing when I download a song without paying them.