Even contracting through an agency can be enough to live very well. My wife only works part time doing pet sitting and occupies most of the rest of her time doing volunteer work for a parrot rescue organization while I do contract work for the larger banks in the Charlotte area. We have cable, a mortgage, a car payment, and other bills and still go out to eat at least once a week. Sure my agency gets a cut but that also makes sure they work hard to keep me employed. I'm only on my second gig after two years here and both gigs were only supposed to be short term (three months or less). I keep getting extended because the managers find that my versatility and broad experience lets them keep me on to move from project to project as they come up. For the most part I work a 40 hour week and when there is OT (rarely) I get time and a half. No on call rotations, no weekends, no middle of the night phone calls, and no real responsibility stresses. The only down side I've seen so far is that if I want to take a vacation, I don't get paid.
"They might not have been "voiding" the warranty by initially denying my warranty claim, but I don't see any difference between voiding and trying to not honor a warranty. Either way, you're not getting the service that you're entitled to. "
I see where you're coming from but I have to respectfully disagree. The difference I see is poor customer service versus the company's flat out refusal because they know they are in the right. Better examples of customer service would help you in EITHER case and there are companies out there that will give replacements or repairs even though the damage is caused by the customer. In your case, their customer service failed by not recognizing that what you did in no way impacted the part that failed. In another case, where someone's actions caused the part failure, they would certainly be justified in telling you to go to hell. I think that is the difference between trying not to honor a warranty and out and out voiding.
"This is not funny. It's also not correct. From dictionary.com, the definition of hang includes: 4. to put to death by suspending by the neck from a gallows, gibbet, yardarm, or the like."
From the very same dictionary.com entry you tried to correct me with... "esp. for 4, 5, 20, 24, hanged". So, besides not having a sense of humor, you fail it! Enjoy your remedial English classes.:)
"How's that working out for you? I mean no disrespect, but as a Canadian looking south, from my point of view it doesn't look like your 2nd Ammendment is doing anything to curb your government screwing with its citizens (Patriot Act, anyone?)."
Theoretically, it's supposed to provide that when the majority of the population realizes that their democratic republic has become a tyranny, enough citizens will still be armed to foment revolution. Now, having said that I have to also state that I don't believe that the USA has reached that point. Ask me how it seems to working again if the next election is delayed or canceled for some reason.
"I'd be interested in watching the speed at which she is "dumped" by the lobbyist now that she has no power to help advance his career."
Could be that he will retire with his golden parachute and she will retire with her bribes and they'll live happily ever after on their newly purchased tropical island with no more technology than refrigeration to make ice for their drinks.:P
"I want a computer without Windows!! Where can I buy one...? Answer: I can't."
Sure you can...
You can certainly go with Dell... "http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/ubuntu?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs"
Or you can of course go Apple. "apple.com"
How about eBay? "http://cgi.ebay.com/BRAND-NEW-AMD64X-3200-COMPLETE-GAMING-COMPUTER-NR..." blah, blah -lameness filter kicked in...brand new gaming rig sold "NO OPERATING SYSTEM INCLUDED".
That's with only a minute's search. If you can't find more then you aren't looking hard enough. Maybe not as many choices as you want, but there are some. The other choice is to buy any used rig and put your choice of OS on it.
Respectfully, I don't think this is their argument is towards or against free market. It appears to me that it's more oriented towards reducing MS domination without looking at the alternatives realistically. My brand new Ubuntu install (yes, I'm very happy now) was not without a few hiccups that required experience well beyond the average user's ability and/or patience. My intermediate Xenix exposure from almost 20 years ago and overall IT experience were the only things that got me up and running on a laptop with built-in wireless without having to seek assistance. My mom just bought a new Mac last week and I've already had multiple calls for help because most of her prior experience has been MS centric. I am all for the world moving towards MS alternatives but the fact of the matter is that most folks use MS and know it exclusively. It's not about free market as much as trying to reduce the stranglehold that MS possesses due to its already ubiquitous use.
"Ummmm...yeah, they would heat and transfer "some" to your roof. My guess is it would be MUCH, MUCH less than direct sunlight though."
How qualified is your guess? I'm thinking that direct application of dark colored solar panels will still heat and therefore directly transfer (possibly A LOT of) heat to my roof. I'm also thinking that a one or two inch standoff from the roof is not nearly as good as six inches or more. In a mid-summer, dead calm, no cloud in sky kind of day, what would be the minimum practical height for the solar panels to be raised above the roof to equal the kind of shade I have existing from my house being surrounded by a canopy of trees that are 30 years or older? On a hot summer day, take a piece of plywood painted black and put it in the middle of your lawn supported by bricks. How will the grass under the plywood fare? Now take that plywood and support it on posts three feet high. See where I'm coming from?:)
My thought with my first post that a standoff of some sort might help defray the loss of shade from cutting trees. I just don't know how much height above the roof surface provides sufficient air flow to keep the roof from heating too.
"Wouldn't the Solar panels being absorbing the sunlight and turning it into electrical energy (or reflecting/reradiating what is not converted) thereby not allowing the sunlight/infrared to become "heat" in your house?"
Wouldn't the solar panels heat and wouldn't they conduct/transfer heat to your roof? We're not talking about 100% conversion of the sun's rays to electricity. I would think any dark colored surface on your roof will heat in sunlight even if its main purpose is to generate electricity.
Ow! I have found it best not to nitpick grammar and spelling on Slashdot. There are plenty of folks here who are very intelligent and be's not the bestest fo speelers or grammaticistists. I think it's best to judge the content not the occasional misuse of a word or spelling. Also, some of the world's best educated in English seem to peruse Slashdot and they WILL hold you to your own standards and put you in your place if you try to be a grammar Nazi and you are actually...WRONG! That is part of the evolution of my sig.:)
How about the environmental impact of all the two stroke chainsaws cutting down C02 absorbing trees in order to provide direct sunlight to the roofs where the solar panels will be installed? That is being said kinda "tongue in cheek" but it might be a consideration. An even greater consideration to me personally would be the effect of the loss of shade on my house during the hot summer months. I don't even want to think what my AC would cost without the wonderful shade of 30+ year old trees that surround my house. Perhaps standing the panels off the surface of the roof by a half foot or more might lessen the impact.
FTFA..."The figures were obtained by the Liberal Democrats on the London Assembly using the Freedom of Information Act."
And are we to assume that the "Liberal Democrats" used the figures in a method even remotely approximating what might be considered scientific? I'm thinking right off the bat that this is a great case to make the statistics fit your agenda. I read the BBC news daily and have definitely read where their CCTV recordings have helped catch bad guys...just like here in the USA where bank and convenience store tapes have helped catch bad guys.
Keep your fucking cameras in the public domain and out of my house and property and I'm all for it. Hell, it might even prove my self-defense claim when I stick my ball-point pen in that mugger's eye.
"By paying off the governments of the world to impose a $699/year flat tax on every citizen, to be paid directly to microsoft, for a copy of the current version of windows?"
Ow! You ruined my whole god damned night! I was thinking MS was pissing in the wind until your post.
"Also, consider that IBM's employee headcount doesn't include contractors. I don't know how much including them would effect the headcount, but it's certainly by a substantial amount."
Earlier this year I had my contract with a major bank based out of Charlotte cancelled. My boss was very sorry but as she said, "they do this every year in January or February". Hundreds, if not thousands of contract and full time employees across the world ditched every year...at the beginning of the year. They hire a lot back a couple of months later and in the mean time, whatever reports to the corporate board or stock holders look a whole lot better with that smaller head count and smaller payroll.
"My guess is this storm-in-a-teacup is just another way for MS to justify padding the pockets of some of their lawyer cronies and poke sticks at the hornets nest."
I agree that the lawyers for both sides will profit but you can take off the tinfoil hat regarding MS wanting to line lawyers' pockets.
Here's the deal as I see it. MS gets to inhibit open source at minimal expense. They already have their own corporate lawyers plus external lawyers from prestigious firms on retainer. A law firm I worked for did lobbying for MS, Bill Gates came to our office. That's just a cost of business for a company the size of MS. The reality is any delay tactic or expense caused to their competition helps their bottom line by delaying the exodus. It really doesn't matter if MS has a legitimate case or not. Even if they lose, they win.
"Also, thanks to the electoral college system, it is often possible to safely vote for a third party, because most of us live in states where preelection polling makes the results entirely predictable and the margins are such that a vote to increase a third party candidate's results can be more valuable than a vote for one of the major candidates."
Thank you for pointing out a major flaw in our system that seems to escape many who consider themselves politically educated. The electoral college is what allows a candidate to win even though they may not have actually won the popular vote. Of course, another major flaw is the fact that most candidates seem to have to cater to special interests in order to gain enough momentum to even possibly be elected. Special interests do not have have the country's interests at heart, only their own...and screw everyone else.
"Well as it turns out, one of the qualifications to choosing our government is being white."
Actually I don't that race plays into it at all. I'm sure that a black, Hispanic, or Asian American could be elected if they proved themselves to be sufficiently compliant to our corporate overlords.
"I can only imagine how much worse 'texting while driving' is."
If you can only imagine how much worse texting while driving is than you don't do much driving. At least the idiots talking on their cell phones can have one hand on the wheel and their eyes on the road. Yes, their attention is not fully on the matter at hand, driving, but the bigger idiots who are texting aren't even looking where they are going and are trying to steer with a knee.
The easy way to tell if someone is on their phone when on the highway is too look for the slowest person in the left lane. The easy way to tell if someone is texting on the the highway is to look for the slowest person weaving in the left lane.
As much as I value my time, I value getting to where I'm going safely more. Those of you who eat, read, put on makeup, shave, text, watch videos, or whatever need to really think if your multi-tasking is worth killing yourself or someone else.
Slashdot Mirror
Even contracting through an agency can be enough to live very well. My wife only works part time doing pet sitting and occupies most of the rest of her time doing volunteer work for a parrot rescue organization while I do contract work for the larger banks in the Charlotte area. We have cable, a mortgage, a car payment, and other bills and still go out to eat at least once a week. Sure my agency gets a cut but that also makes sure they work hard to keep me employed. I'm only on my second gig after two years here and both gigs were only supposed to be short term (three months or less). I keep getting extended because the managers find that my versatility and broad experience lets them keep me on to move from project to project as they come up. For the most part I work a 40 hour week and when there is OT (rarely) I get time and a half. No on call rotations, no weekends, no middle of the night phone calls, and no real responsibility stresses. The only down side I've seen so far is that if I want to take a vacation, I don't get paid.
"They might not have been "voiding" the warranty by initially denying my warranty claim, but I don't see any difference between voiding and trying to not honor a warranty. Either way, you're not getting the service that you're entitled to. "
I see where you're coming from but I have to respectfully disagree. The difference I see is poor customer service versus the company's flat out refusal because they know they are in the right. Better examples of customer service would help you in EITHER case and there are companies out there that will give replacements or repairs even though the damage is caused by the customer. In your case, their customer service failed by not recognizing that what you did in no way impacted the part that failed. In another case, where someone's actions caused the part failure, they would certainly be justified in telling you to go to hell. I think that is the difference between trying not to honor a warranty and out and out voiding.
Cheers,
al
"This is not funny. It's also not correct. From dictionary.com, the definition of hang includes:
:)
4. to put to death by suspending by the neck from a gallows, gibbet, yardarm, or the like."
From the very same dictionary.com entry you tried to correct me with... "esp. for 4, 5, 20, 24, hanged". So, besides not having a sense of humor, you fail it! Enjoy your remedial English classes.
"How's that working out for you? I mean no disrespect, but as a Canadian looking south, from my point of view it doesn't look like your 2nd Ammendment is doing anything to curb your government screwing with its citizens (Patriot Act, anyone?)."
Theoretically, it's supposed to provide that when the majority of the population realizes that their democratic republic has become a tyranny, enough citizens will still be armed to foment revolution. Now, having said that I have to also state that I don't believe that the USA has reached that point. Ask me how it seems to working again if the next election is delayed or canceled for some reason.
"I'd be interested in watching the speed at which she is "dumped" by the lobbyist now that she has no power to help advance his career."
:P
Could be that he will retire with his golden parachute and she will retire with her bribes and they'll live happily ever after on their newly purchased tropical island with no more technology than refrigeration to make ice for their drinks.
Okay, I posted just last night that I try to not put on my grammar Nazi hat as frequently as I used to...
:)
However...
"I'm a Canadian, not a copyleft movement. She's a traitor. I want her hung."
You want her hanged if you want her executed by hanging. You want her hung if you want her be a hermaphrodite.
"I want a computer without Windows!! Where can I buy one...?
Answer: I can't."
Sure you can...
You can certainly go with Dell... "http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/ubuntu?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs"
Or you can of course go Apple. "apple.com"
How about eBay? "http://cgi.ebay.com/BRAND-NEW-AMD64X-3200-COMPLETE-GAMING-COMPUTER-NR..." blah, blah -lameness filter kicked in...brand new gaming rig sold "NO OPERATING SYSTEM INCLUDED".
That's with only a minute's search. If you can't find more then you aren't looking hard enough. Maybe not as many choices as you want, but there are some. The other choice is to buy any used rig and put your choice of OS on it.
Respectfully, I don't think this is their argument is towards or against free market. It appears to me that it's more oriented towards reducing MS domination without looking at the alternatives realistically. My brand new Ubuntu install (yes, I'm very happy now) was not without a few hiccups that required experience well beyond the average user's ability and/or patience. My intermediate Xenix exposure from almost 20 years ago and overall IT experience were the only things that got me up and running on a laptop with built-in wireless without having to seek assistance. My mom just bought a new Mac last week and I've already had multiple calls for help because most of her prior experience has been MS centric. I am all for the world moving towards MS alternatives but the fact of the matter is that most folks use MS and know it exclusively. It's not about free market as much as trying to reduce the stranglehold that MS possesses due to its already ubiquitous use.
"Ummmm...yeah, they would heat and transfer "some" to your roof. My guess is it would be MUCH, MUCH less than direct sunlight though."
:)
How qualified is your guess? I'm thinking that direct application of dark colored solar panels will still heat and therefore directly transfer (possibly A LOT of) heat to my roof. I'm also thinking that a one or two inch standoff from the roof is not nearly as good as six inches or more. In a mid-summer, dead calm, no cloud in sky kind of day, what would be the minimum practical height for the solar panels to be raised above the roof to equal the kind of shade I have existing from my house being surrounded by a canopy of trees that are 30 years or older? On a hot summer day, take a piece of plywood painted black and put it in the middle of your lawn supported by bricks. How will the grass under the plywood fare? Now take that plywood and support it on posts three feet high. See where I'm coming from?
My thought with my first post that a standoff of some sort might help defray the loss of shade from cutting trees. I just don't know how much height above the roof surface provides sufficient air flow to keep the roof from heating too.
"Wouldn't the Solar panels being absorbing the sunlight and turning it into electrical energy (or reflecting/reradiating what is not converted) thereby not allowing the sunlight/infrared to become "heat" in your house?"
Wouldn't the solar panels heat and wouldn't they conduct/transfer heat to your roof? We're not talking about 100% conversion of the sun's rays to electricity. I would think any dark colored surface on your roof will heat in sunlight even if its main purpose is to generate electricity.
Wow. I think you just dated yourself and proved your membership in the Mad Scientist's Club.
Ow! I have found it best not to nitpick grammar and spelling on Slashdot. There are plenty of folks here who are very intelligent and be's not the bestest fo speelers or grammaticistists. I think it's best to judge the content not the occasional misuse of a word or spelling. Also, some of the world's best educated in English seem to peruse Slashdot and they WILL hold you to your own standards and put you in your place if you try to be a grammar Nazi and you are actually...WRONG! That is part of the evolution of my sig. :)
How about the environmental impact of all the two stroke chainsaws cutting down C02 absorbing trees in order to provide direct sunlight to the roofs where the solar panels will be installed? That is being said kinda "tongue in cheek" but it might be a consideration. An even greater consideration to me personally would be the effect of the loss of shade on my house during the hot summer months. I don't even want to think what my AC would cost without the wonderful shade of 30+ year old trees that surround my house. Perhaps standing the panels off the surface of the roof by a half foot or more might lessen the impact.
FTFA..."The figures were obtained by the Liberal Democrats on the London Assembly using the Freedom of Information Act."
And are we to assume that the "Liberal Democrats" used the figures in a method even remotely approximating what might be considered scientific? I'm thinking right off the bat that this is a great case to make the statistics fit your agenda. I read the BBC news daily and have definitely read where their CCTV recordings have helped catch bad guys...just like here in the USA where bank and convenience store tapes have helped catch bad guys.
Keep your fucking cameras in the public domain and out of my house and property and I'm all for it. Hell, it might even prove my self-defense claim when I stick my ball-point pen in that mugger's eye.
"By paying off the governments of the world to impose a $699/year flat tax on every citizen, to be paid directly to microsoft, for a copy of the current version of windows?"
Ow! You ruined my whole god damned night! I was thinking MS was pissing in the wind until your post.
"And if only you were Denny Crane, you would have had guns right there."
:)
I had to Wikipedia Denny Crane to get your reference. Actually, if I was Denny Crane I'd probably just have Sulu open up with the photon torpedoes.
"Also, consider that IBM's employee headcount doesn't include contractors. I don't know how much including them would effect the headcount, but it's certainly by a substantial amount."
Earlier this year I had my contract with a major bank based out of Charlotte cancelled. My boss was very sorry but as she said, "they do this every year in January or February". Hundreds, if not thousands of contract and full time employees across the world ditched every year...at the beginning of the year. They hire a lot back a couple of months later and in the mean time, whatever reports to the corporate board or stock holders look a whole lot better with that smaller head count and smaller payroll.
"Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option."
"Humously"?
Typo or attempt at humor? Okay, kill my karma for being a spelling Nazi...
"My guess is this storm-in-a-teacup is just another way for MS to justify padding the pockets of some of their lawyer cronies and poke sticks at the hornets nest."
I agree that the lawyers for both sides will profit but you can take off the tinfoil hat regarding MS wanting to line lawyers' pockets.
Here's the deal as I see it. MS gets to inhibit open source at minimal expense. They already have their own corporate lawyers plus external lawyers from prestigious firms on retainer. A law firm I worked for did lobbying for MS, Bill Gates came to our office. That's just a cost of business for a company the size of MS. The reality is any delay tactic or expense caused to their competition helps their bottom line by delaying the exodus. It really doesn't matter if MS has a legitimate case or not. Even if they lose, they win.
I agree wholeheartedly with most your post but now I'll play devil's advocate...
"Organize street protests for public displays of support (or opposition) -- contrary to what many people think, street protests are very important."
Right, street protest and get beaten and shot with rubber bullets by the police.
"Also, thanks to the electoral college system, it is often possible to safely vote for a third party, because most of us live in states where preelection polling makes the results entirely predictable and the margins are such that a vote to increase a third party candidate's results can be more valuable than a vote for one of the major candidates."
Thank you for pointing out a major flaw in our system that seems to escape many who consider themselves politically educated. The electoral college is what allows a candidate to win even though they may not have actually won the popular vote. Of course, another major flaw is the fact that most candidates seem to have to cater to special interests in order to gain enough momentum to even possibly be elected. Special interests do not have have the country's interests at heart, only their own...and screw everyone else.
"Well as it turns out, one of the qualifications to choosing our government is being white."
Actually I don't that race plays into it at all. I'm sure that a black, Hispanic, or Asian American could be elected if they proved themselves to be sufficiently compliant to our corporate overlords.
"I can only imagine how much worse 'texting while driving' is."
If you can only imagine how much worse texting while driving is than you don't do much driving. At least the idiots talking on their cell phones can have one hand on the wheel and their eyes on the road. Yes, their attention is not fully on the matter at hand, driving, but the bigger idiots who are texting aren't even looking where they are going and are trying to steer with a knee.
The easy way to tell if someone is on their phone when on the highway is too look for the slowest person in the left lane. The easy way to tell if someone is texting on the the highway is to look for the slowest person weaving in the left lane.
As much as I value my time, I value getting to where I'm going safely more. Those of you who eat, read, put on makeup, shave, text, watch videos, or whatever need to really think if your multi-tasking is worth killing yourself or someone else.
Scotty, beam yourself up before it's too late!!!