Everything about western teen society is to enforce conformity, intelligence is overrated, originality is shunned and bob forbid you actually have an opinion of your own. Just being a little physically different or a foreign accent is reason enough for one to be ostracised and ridiculed.
Big Bang Theory?
In all seriousness I find myself fighting this battle with my son every day. He refers to things as gay, as retarded, as any number of slurs routinely spewed forth by the teenagers today. I've told him many times in the past that I don't care if he uses the verbiage, but I want him to consider what he's using and why. He would never use the word retarded around his grandmother, who's a special needs teacher. He would never use the word gay around a family friend who is gay. Yet as soon as those individuals are not around he slips back into using the verbiage.
I also believe schools today have a great deal of responsibility when it comes to bullying today. They've removed all of the social resolutions to the issue. You can't return the names, lest you both be punished equally. You can't punch back because you'll be suspended along with the instigator. When I was a teen and someone called me a name or picked on me I made a conscious choice and either 1) acknowledged that there was nothing I could do due to greater intellect, size, or numbers, or 2) beat the living hell out of the individual, usually with environmental aid. [There are no rules to a fight.] Now the schools have removed that choice and the only feeling a teen has is helplessness -- they have no choice, lest the system punish them.
As a side note I have told my son that if he is picked on he is to fight back. He is never, EVER to start a fight or make fun of someone -- that simply isn't right, especially when the target is someone who has no choice in the matter. As soon as someone starts that fight though... he's to finish it. He's won three times [13, football player, 5' 6", 180 lbs], and I've defended his actions twice -- he's never been suspended for defending himself because I've told the school I will sue them into the ground. [When administrators stop trying to apply zero tolerance policies to the world I will stop threatening to sue public institutions -- that's the only threat they'll listen to.]
Remember that when we remove all the avenues of resolution that only one remains: violence. To ourselves or others.
...and all I see are the same types of statistics that are strolled out by the ISPs when network usage and congestion become a problem. "Blame the top 3%!" "Bandwidth hogs!" "Piracy accounts for 75% of lost revenue!" Whoops, that last one slipped in but I think you get the point.
There are always going to be maximum and minimum users - the whole idea is that, on average, you can handle the load. If you can't handle the load the problem is not the end user - it's you.
AT&T has received plenty of money with which it could expand it's infrastructure. It could relieve the bandwidth bottleneck by releasing the iPhone exclusivity. It could have realized that unlimited users are going to consume as much as they can. Now they're on the hook and they want to blame the user? No, that doesn't float.
(And if I see one more "unlimited*" notation I'm going to scream. When did unlimited get redefined as "limited to..."? Why is that not false advertising?)
I'll pay the extra money just so I can have a cheerful cashier, a clean rest room, and a brightly lit store. As well as Target's contributions to the community and schools.
Begin looking for another job as soon as possible. Document your communications with your manager and attempts to get them to go legit. But leave as soon as possible.
The reason is simple: a company who believes it is okay to do what they're doing is not going to appreciate what YOU do. Your raises will never be good, the respect you garner from upper level management will be negligible, and you will always be treated as a second class citizen that is there only because the world requires it. The companies that do what you're describing are those who view technology as a "necessary evil" and "money sink" rather than the enabler it should be.
You own the software, but you're not licensed to use it. Kind of similar to the "you can have a circumvention device, and you can have a product on which the device works - both are legal. Using the circumvention device to remove the protection is illegal, however."
Car analogy: you can be given the keys to your parents car, you can have access to their car, but it's not legal for you to drive it if you're licensed to drive.
Yea, in Missouri I can vouch this definitely happens. I had to get my car repaired, they cleared the codes but said I had to drive a minimum of 500 miles before I brought it back in for inspection. I asked him how I was supposed to drive with expired plates (nothing like procrastination, eh?!) and he said not to worry about it. If I got pulled over explain to the cop and he'd know what was going on.
IMO these codes should have been released a long time ago. Then again I don't like DRM or any sort of other lockin either, so...
The first is from AT&T and a fight I've had with them. They cut off my cell phones when my account was paid in full, then billed me for three months more of service, and a cancellation fee - TWICE. ($100.00/month, $600.00 cancellation fee x2 = $1,200.00, plus interest and charges = $1,500.00.) When I called to ask them why this occurred they told me I "needed to learn to pay my bills." My boss has signed a notarized affidavit indicating that he tried to contact me on my cell phone and was greeted with the "this number has been disconnected" message. I'm not liable for a cancellation fee if I didn't break the contract. (Psst. They did. This also occurred with OneRate back in 1999 with AT&T. I called to update my billing address. They told me they had to charge me a $200.00 cancellation fee. I asked why; she said I no longer qualified for OneRate. I said I want OneRate, I'm not cancelling that. There was no provision that I had to stay in the service area for the plan to stay in effect. That was the benefit of it. I won that fight, at least.) I've had to order the bill collectors to cease and desist per the FCRA in order to have quiet at my home -- but they still report to my credit. This one is not my fault, although if I get another collector next year... well, I may just have to show them what workplace violence really is.
The second is from CompUSA. I had a store credit card which I paid online. In October 2007 their web site went offline (because they went out of business). I had destroyed the card, didn't even know who issued it, and was unable to make payments. When a bill collector contacted me in March, 2008, it was a firm that wanted to play games - the first message on my answering machine was talking about me going to jail for not paying my debts. I whipped out a tape recorder and recorded every call with them, which I then forwarded to the FTC - and never paid them a dime. The debt was sold in February, 2009, to another collector - which I promptly paid due to their professionalism in collecting the debt. But I still have the other collector on my record. This one is, admittedly, my fault -- I should've taken the time to find the credit card issuer and make mail payments.
The third is from XM Radio. I cancelled them two years ago. I'm on my fourth BBB complaint to try to get them to stop billing me and reporting me as late on my credit, and to stop them from harassing me at home. When I call their customer service I get hung up on when I request a manager, or when I request to cancel my service. This one is not only not my fault, but stupid - the CSRs for XM Radio are rude, unintelligible, and should be shot.
Funny thing is, I work for one of the major U. S. Banks in their mortgage software development department, and these three things were already on my credit report when they hired me - and they did pull a credit report.
The idea behind the credit reports is sound, but it's been abused and stretched and is much larger than it should be.
I've got both NWN and NWN2 and all expansion packs, and I love those.
Thanks for the links to those adventures though; I've shied away from the custom content because a lot of it is questionable quality.
The originals - Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades, Pools of Darkness. Wrap them in one long game. Tie them together a little more neatly. Remove the reliance on journals. (Although I will admit the translation wheel and journal were awesome in the day, now they only serve as a distraction -- dig through the box, find the manual, read the entry - and that's only if I've managed to forget what the entry was, which isn't likely.)
Remaking the games and giving PoR and CotAB the Fix command in camp would be nice. Updating the graphics would be nice. But the game play - what I refer to as fantasy based squad level combat, not role playing - could be hugely improved. You could add role playing elements by expanding the options in the games for solving the puzzles. Make the players think more in quite a few of the situations they found themselves in.
Though, SotSB could probably be left out to die. I don't have many fond memories of it. And this probably doesn't qualify as a reboot so much as a remake. And WotC, or whoever holds the AD&D license now, would insist on using 4e rules which would change the flavor of the game entirely...
Dungeon Keeper would be a fantastic game to see re-imagined. Eye of the Beholder. I'd enjoy seeing what some of the darker personalities of the world could do with the Warcraft lore, given the chance. Space simulations need to come back -- picked up FreeSpace and FreeSpace 2 at Good Old Games (http://www.gog.com) and loved 'em; they're made even better with the FreeSpace Source Code Project created by the source code release by Volition. (Hm, have they already been rebooted, or just remade? There are several new campaigns...)
Wing Commander would be awesome to see revived. Ultima would be a fantastic series to see reimagined, especially the first three (which I never liked all that much due to the space portions). RIP Origin.:|
Doesn't this give broadband companies a vested interest in ensuring that botnets stay active?
How do they plan on resolving situations where the traffic isn't requested by the customer? I understand that mobile phones charge the owner of the phone for an incoming call, but even mobile companies have started moving away from that model.
Do they plan on giving us a breakdown of our usage? If so, I'd like to see what kind of breakdown they'll provide. Phone companies have to provide a listing of the numbers and the charges for each.
The comments about Steam are true though. I recently reformatted and reinstalled my Steam collection. I downloaded over 80Gb in three days without realizing it.
I don't see anyone attempting to move away from procedural programming. I see tons and tons of new languages aimed at new methods of expressing the same ideas and concepts.
Considering COBOL still has a huge developer base in our world, do you SERIOUSLY think corporations are going to let their existing code base go simply to chase some new paradigm?
...near instant gratification for the first steps that he takes. Whether that means console programming, or working within another prebuilt environment - few folks at that age want to invest weeks and weeks of time without seeing an immediate (or near immediate) payoff.
Once he's hooked - on the control, on the ability to do whatever HE can do - let him take on the more advanced stuff that requires an investment of time or resources.
Finally, make sure the tools he uses and the environment he's working with are *preconfigured* for what he wants to do. Don't make him figure out what patches need to be applied, or what directories need to be in his path - make sure, again, that it's easy for him to begin.
(I guess my advice is to treat it like a drug. Make it REAL easy to get hooked, then make him work.;))
The first decision you should make in any situation is, "How much do I want to know?"
The second decision is, "Where do I go to learn what I want to know?"
You don't have to know everything about a given situation, but if you accept and follow any advice in any situation blindly, especially when you have any sort of control, you're a fool that deserves what you get.
Hasn't the "reputation" system been tried for various professions, including doctors? And didn't the US judicial system decide that these types of sites were defamatory and liable for false comments?
I'm really not sure of what the outcome was, but I'm pretty sure it was tried and got sued out of existence.
Even if this type of system was allowed doesn't it hamstring the doctor that he's not allowed to discuss medical facts about his patients, but we allow those who have been treated to discuss the treatment and practitioners in question? That would be a one sided story, for sure.
How would the software know where it was located?
on
UCITA By the Back Door
·
· Score: 1
Thanks to VPNs, IPs aren't 100% reliable for geolocation. So what happens if you're in the UK, working for a US company, and they trigger their little self help program?
Passing a law in the US for this sort of thing doesn't cut it. You have to make it globally legal, or you're on thin ice waiting for suit to be filed.
Besides, don't most EULAs for the shadowy applications of the world already include verbiage similar to this? "Well you agreed when you shot the duck with the blue target instead of the red..."
Even if they did remove the "backdoor" unless they distributed the binary, they weren't violating the GPL. The GPL applies to distributors, not to end users. (Well, GPL v2. I haven't read GPL v3 yet. Yep, I'm lazy.)
If they distribute the unmodified binary, how are you to know that the copy you're disabling is in use or was distributed by the offending individual or corporation?
I was a "Senior Sales Associate" at Software, Etc., for years. Across from our mall was a Best Buy who often sold hardware and software much cheaper than we could.
I never veered from telling someone they could go across the street and get it cheaper if they asked. I may not have volunteered it, but honesty is my policy. The fun thing is that because I answered truthfully they almost always bought the item from me - because they felt they could trust me and my recommendations. (I can only recall one incident where the individual went across the street.)
This was back in the day of proprietary CD-ROMs, when double speed was fast, and the SoundBlaster had just released its proprietary interface...
The lady you mention may not have bought something, but she might have as well. Never underestimate the power of consumer loyalty or appreciation.
I've always thought of "road rage" as anger exhibited while driving, where the source of the anger is the environment or other variables outside the control of the driver.
The behavior of other drivers is not necessarily outside the control of the driver. That's the purpose of getting out of the vehicle and unloading on the other driver - to indicate to him that you find his behavior unacceptable, and that his rush put you and your nephew at personal risk. (And look what he gained - he was at the same light as you.)
We shouldn't forget that anger has a purpose, and that the driver who ran you off the road will never learn a lesson until he's been hurt or killed, or someone else has been, unless someone goes out of their way to target him with the effects of his actions.
Unfortunately, human psyche doesn't take well to constructive criticism; fear of reprisal is the most effective method of restricting actions. If you could convince the other driver that his life was on the line he would think twice before driving like an idiot. (At least for a few days.)
(Excellent Napoleon Bonaparte quote: "Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.")
If I appear to be sanctioning and condoning this behavior, I am. Too often we sit back and expect society and its designated authorities to deal with people that believe they're more important than anyone else. Those authorities won't; they have a vested interest in pleasing everyone.
Society makes this mistake all too often. The safety of the few is placed above the capabilities of all. We restrict who can own guns, but those who will use them illegally do not care. We throttle P2P applications, but those who are acting criminally will have no problem working around the throttle. We allow lawyers to game the system, because the system - and the rules allowing it to be gamed - is needed to allow others to defend themselves.
I've been hit before for condoning violent or "unacceptable" behavior in public, but with 6 billion and counting in the world the only person who will look out for you is YOU. Until society finds value in personal responsibility rather than governmental welfare and until folks realize that they, not their past, control their actions... well, we must stand up for ourselves.
(Disclaimer: I had a shitty childhood. I'm bipolar, ADHD, and twenty three years diabetic. The only person responsible for me is ME. I blame nothing on my family, friends, childhood, or environment. To do so is to avoid my responsibility for my behavior.)
Wasn't there a ruckus recently about prison overcrowding and how the government needs to learn to deal with socially disruptive individuals rather than imprison them?
Slashdot Mirror
Everything about western teen society is to enforce conformity, intelligence is overrated, originality is shunned and bob forbid you actually have an opinion of your own. Just being a little physically different or a foreign accent is reason enough for one to be ostracised and ridiculed.
Big Bang Theory?
In all seriousness I find myself fighting this battle with my son every day. He refers to things as gay, as retarded, as any number of slurs routinely spewed forth by the teenagers today. I've told him many times in the past that I don't care if he uses the verbiage, but I want him to consider what he's using and why. He would never use the word retarded around his grandmother, who's a special needs teacher. He would never use the word gay around a family friend who is gay. Yet as soon as those individuals are not around he slips back into using the verbiage.
I also believe schools today have a great deal of responsibility when it comes to bullying today. They've removed all of the social resolutions to the issue. You can't return the names, lest you both be punished equally. You can't punch back because you'll be suspended along with the instigator. When I was a teen and someone called me a name or picked on me I made a conscious choice and either 1) acknowledged that there was nothing I could do due to greater intellect, size, or numbers, or 2) beat the living hell out of the individual, usually with environmental aid. [There are no rules to a fight.] Now the schools have removed that choice and the only feeling a teen has is helplessness -- they have no choice, lest the system punish them.
As a side note I have told my son that if he is picked on he is to fight back. He is never, EVER to start a fight or make fun of someone -- that simply isn't right, especially when the target is someone who has no choice in the matter. As soon as someone starts that fight though... he's to finish it. He's won three times [13, football player, 5' 6", 180 lbs], and I've defended his actions twice -- he's never been suspended for defending himself because I've told the school I will sue them into the ground. [When administrators stop trying to apply zero tolerance policies to the world I will stop threatening to sue public institutions -- that's the only threat they'll listen to.]
Remember that when we remove all the avenues of resolution that only one remains: violence. To ourselves or others.
...and all I see are the same types of statistics that are strolled out by the ISPs when network usage and congestion become a problem. "Blame the top 3%!" "Bandwidth hogs!" "Piracy accounts for 75% of lost revenue!" Whoops, that last one slipped in but I think you get the point.
There are always going to be maximum and minimum users - the whole idea is that, on average, you can handle the load. If you can't handle the load the problem is not the end user - it's you.
AT&T has received plenty of money with which it could expand it's infrastructure. It could relieve the bandwidth bottleneck by releasing the iPhone exclusivity. It could have realized that unlimited users are going to consume as much as they can. Now they're on the hook and they want to blame the user? No, that doesn't float.
(And if I see one more "unlimited*" notation I'm going to scream. When did unlimited get redefined as "limited to ..."? Why is that not false advertising?)
I'll pay the extra money just so I can have a cheerful cashier, a clean rest room, and a brightly lit store. As well as Target's contributions to the community and schools.
Begin looking for another job as soon as possible. Document your communications with your manager and attempts to get them to go legit. But leave as soon as possible.
The reason is simple: a company who believes it is okay to do what they're doing is not going to appreciate what YOU do. Your raises will never be good, the respect you garner from upper level management will be negligible, and you will always be treated as a second class citizen that is there only because the world requires it. The companies that do what you're describing are those who view technology as a "necessary evil" and "money sink" rather than the enabler it should be.
*if you're not licensed to drive.
You own the software, but you're not licensed to use it. Kind of similar to the "you can have a circumvention device, and you can have a product on which the device works - both are legal. Using the circumvention device to remove the protection is illegal, however."
Car analogy: you can be given the keys to your parents car, you can have access to their car, but it's not legal for you to drive it if you're licensed to drive.
Yea, in Missouri I can vouch this definitely happens. I had to get my car repaired, they cleared the codes but said I had to drive a minimum of 500 miles before I brought it back in for inspection. I asked him how I was supposed to drive with expired plates (nothing like procrastination, eh?!) and he said not to worry about it. If I got pulled over explain to the cop and he'd know what was going on.
IMO these codes should have been released a long time ago. Then again I don't like DRM or any sort of other lockin either, so...
My credit score is ~600, from three issues.
The first is from AT&T and a fight I've had with them. They cut off my cell phones when my account was paid in full, then billed me for three months more of service, and a cancellation fee - TWICE. ($100.00/month, $600.00 cancellation fee x2 = $1,200.00, plus interest and charges = $1,500.00.) When I called to ask them why this occurred they told me I "needed to learn to pay my bills." My boss has signed a notarized affidavit indicating that he tried to contact me on my cell phone and was greeted with the "this number has been disconnected" message. I'm not liable for a cancellation fee if I didn't break the contract. (Psst. They did. This also occurred with OneRate back in 1999 with AT&T. I called to update my billing address. They told me they had to charge me a $200.00 cancellation fee. I asked why; she said I no longer qualified for OneRate. I said I want OneRate, I'm not cancelling that. There was no provision that I had to stay in the service area for the plan to stay in effect. That was the benefit of it. I won that fight, at least.) I've had to order the bill collectors to cease and desist per the FCRA in order to have quiet at my home -- but they still report to my credit. This one is not my fault, although if I get another collector next year... well, I may just have to show them what workplace violence really is.
The second is from CompUSA. I had a store credit card which I paid online. In October 2007 their web site went offline (because they went out of business). I had destroyed the card, didn't even know who issued it, and was unable to make payments. When a bill collector contacted me in March, 2008, it was a firm that wanted to play games - the first message on my answering machine was talking about me going to jail for not paying my debts. I whipped out a tape recorder and recorded every call with them, which I then forwarded to the FTC - and never paid them a dime. The debt was sold in February, 2009, to another collector - which I promptly paid due to their professionalism in collecting the debt. But I still have the other collector on my record. This one is, admittedly, my fault -- I should've taken the time to find the credit card issuer and make mail payments.
The third is from XM Radio. I cancelled them two years ago. I'm on my fourth BBB complaint to try to get them to stop billing me and reporting me as late on my credit, and to stop them from harassing me at home. When I call their customer service I get hung up on when I request a manager, or when I request to cancel my service. This one is not only not my fault, but stupid - the CSRs for XM Radio are rude, unintelligible, and should be shot.
Funny thing is, I work for one of the major U. S. Banks in their mortgage software development department, and these three things were already on my credit report when they hired me - and they did pull a credit report.
The idea behind the credit reports is sound, but it's been abused and stretched and is much larger than it should be.
I've got both NWN and NWN2 and all expansion packs, and I love those. Thanks for the links to those adventures though; I've shied away from the custom content because a lot of it is questionable quality.
The originals - Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades, Pools of Darkness. Wrap them in one long game. Tie them together a little more neatly. Remove the reliance on journals. (Although I will admit the translation wheel and journal were awesome in the day, now they only serve as a distraction -- dig through the box, find the manual, read the entry - and that's only if I've managed to forget what the entry was, which isn't likely.)
Remaking the games and giving PoR and CotAB the Fix command in camp would be nice. Updating the graphics would be nice. But the game play - what I refer to as fantasy based squad level combat, not role playing - could be hugely improved. You could add role playing elements by expanding the options in the games for solving the puzzles. Make the players think more in quite a few of the situations they found themselves in.
Though, SotSB could probably be left out to die. I don't have many fond memories of it. And this probably doesn't qualify as a reboot so much as a remake. And WotC, or whoever holds the AD&D license now, would insist on using 4e rules which would change the flavor of the game entirely...
Dungeon Keeper would be a fantastic game to see re-imagined. Eye of the Beholder. I'd enjoy seeing what some of the darker personalities of the world could do with the Warcraft lore, given the chance. Space simulations need to come back -- picked up FreeSpace and FreeSpace 2 at Good Old Games (http://www.gog.com) and loved 'em; they're made even better with the FreeSpace Source Code Project created by the source code release by Volition. (Hm, have they already been rebooted, or just remade? There are several new campaigns...)
Wing Commander would be awesome to see revived. Ultima would be a fantastic series to see reimagined, especially the first three (which I never liked all that much due to the space portions). RIP Origin. :|
Doesn't this give broadband companies a vested interest in ensuring that botnets stay active?
How do they plan on resolving situations where the traffic isn't requested by the customer? I understand that mobile phones charge the owner of the phone for an incoming call, but even mobile companies have started moving away from that model.
Do they plan on giving us a breakdown of our usage? If so, I'd like to see what kind of breakdown they'll provide. Phone companies have to provide a listing of the numbers and the charges for each.
The comments about Steam are true though. I recently reformatted and reinstalled my Steam collection. I downloaded over 80Gb in three days without realizing it.
You seem to indicate that those who need health insurance are hypochondriacs or fat and lazy. What if you're a diabetic? (24 years and counting.)
That's why I'm a W-2 Wage Slave. Insulin is $100.00 a bottle. Combine that with everything else... snort. Not even possible.
16 is still jailbait. :P
I think this would depend on the kid. As well, learning how to work a C= 64 simply taught me a lot of lessons I had to unlearn later. ;)
Seriously?
I don't see anyone attempting to move away from procedural programming. I see tons and tons of new languages aimed at new methods of expressing the same ideas and concepts.
Considering COBOL still has a huge developer base in our world, do you SERIOUSLY think corporations are going to let their existing code base go simply to chase some new paradigm?
...near instant gratification for the first steps that he takes. Whether that means console programming, or working within another prebuilt environment - few folks at that age want to invest weeks and weeks of time without seeing an immediate (or near immediate) payoff.
Once he's hooked - on the control, on the ability to do whatever HE can do - let him take on the more advanced stuff that requires an investment of time or resources.
Finally, make sure the tools he uses and the environment he's working with are *preconfigured* for what he wants to do. Don't make him figure out what patches need to be applied, or what directories need to be in his path - make sure, again, that it's easy for him to begin.
(I guess my advice is to treat it like a drug. Make it REAL easy to get hooked, then make him work. ;))
That, and our health system rewards doctors who treat patients rather than cure them.
Who's fault is that?
The first decision you should make in any situation is, "How much do I want to know?"
The second decision is, "Where do I go to learn what I want to know?"
You don't have to know everything about a given situation, but if you accept and follow any advice in any situation blindly, especially when you have any sort of control, you're a fool that deserves what you get.
Self responsibility.
Hasn't the "reputation" system been tried for various professions, including doctors? And didn't the US judicial system decide that these types of sites were defamatory and liable for false comments?
I'm really not sure of what the outcome was, but I'm pretty sure it was tried and got sued out of existence.
Even if this type of system was allowed doesn't it hamstring the doctor that he's not allowed to discuss medical facts about his patients, but we allow those who have been treated to discuss the treatment and practitioners in question? That would be a one sided story, for sure.
Could be wrong. Usually am.
Had the same problem, found the solution at http://geekswithblogs.net/redwards/archive/2007/06/18/113287.aspx. Not sure if your problem is the same, but it helped out several of us here after one of the automatic updates my employer pushed down.
Thanks to VPNs, IPs aren't 100% reliable for geolocation. So what happens if you're in the UK, working for a US company, and they trigger their little self help program?
Passing a law in the US for this sort of thing doesn't cut it. You have to make it globally legal, or you're on thin ice waiting for suit to be filed.
Besides, don't most EULAs for the shadowy applications of the world already include verbiage similar to this? "Well you agreed when you shot the duck with the blue target instead of the red..."
*snort*
Even if they did remove the "backdoor" unless they distributed the binary, they weren't violating the GPL. The GPL applies to distributors, not to end users. (Well, GPL v2. I haven't read GPL v3 yet. Yep, I'm lazy.)
If they distribute the unmodified binary, how are you to know that the copy you're disabling is in use or was distributed by the offending individual or corporation?
I was a "Senior Sales Associate" at Software, Etc., for years. Across from our mall was a Best Buy who often sold hardware and software much cheaper than we could.
I never veered from telling someone they could go across the street and get it cheaper if they asked. I may not have volunteered it, but honesty is my policy. The fun thing is that because I answered truthfully they almost always bought the item from me - because they felt they could trust me and my recommendations. (I can only recall one incident where the individual went across the street.)
This was back in the day of proprietary CD-ROMs, when double speed was fast, and the SoundBlaster had just released its proprietary interface...
The lady you mention may not have bought something, but she might have as well. Never underestimate the power of consumer loyalty or appreciation.
I've always thought of "road rage" as anger exhibited while driving, where the source of the anger is the environment or other variables outside the control of the driver.
The behavior of other drivers is not necessarily outside the control of the driver. That's the purpose of getting out of the vehicle and unloading on the other driver - to indicate to him that you find his behavior unacceptable, and that his rush put you and your nephew at personal risk. (And look what he gained - he was at the same light as you.)
We shouldn't forget that anger has a purpose, and that the driver who ran you off the road will never learn a lesson until he's been hurt or killed, or someone else has been, unless someone goes out of their way to target him with the effects of his actions.
Unfortunately, human psyche doesn't take well to constructive criticism; fear of reprisal is the most effective method of restricting actions. If you could convince the other driver that his life was on the line he would think twice before driving like an idiot. (At least for a few days.)
(Excellent Napoleon Bonaparte quote: "Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.")
If I appear to be sanctioning and condoning this behavior, I am. Too often we sit back and expect society and its designated authorities to deal with people that believe they're more important than anyone else. Those authorities won't; they have a vested interest in pleasing everyone.
Society makes this mistake all too often. The safety of the few is placed above the capabilities of all. We restrict who can own guns, but those who will use them illegally do not care. We throttle P2P applications, but those who are acting criminally will have no problem working around the throttle. We allow lawyers to game the system, because the system - and the rules allowing it to be gamed - is needed to allow others to defend themselves.
I've been hit before for condoning violent or "unacceptable" behavior in public, but with 6 billion and counting in the world the only person who will look out for you is YOU. Until society finds value in personal responsibility rather than governmental welfare and until folks realize that they, not their past, control their actions... well, we must stand up for ourselves.
(Disclaimer: I had a shitty childhood. I'm bipolar, ADHD, and twenty three years diabetic. The only person responsible for me is ME. I blame nothing on my family, friends, childhood, or environment. To do so is to avoid my responsibility for my behavior.)
"imprisoned not more than two years"
Wasn't there a ruckus recently about prison overcrowding and how the government needs to learn to deal with socially disruptive individuals rather than imprison them?