They also "regulate" the labeling of cigarette packs by forcing manufacturers to change language like "Light" on their packages because they believe we are all retarded enough to believe that "Light" cigarettes are healthy. Now we have "Bold" and "Blue" and various other names, some of which are even more misleading than "Light" because the government "regulations" say that makes sense.
Ultimately words in advertisement have been banned whether you call it regulation or not. Obviously some things need regulation and oversight such as enforcing driving standards but I agree with the previous poster in that a lot of government "regulations" sure smack of bans these day. They come under the guise of protecting us and our children when it should be us protecting ourselves and our children through some self control and some personal responsibility. We should not need nanny government to come in and say "Don't hit yourself in the head with that hammer...that's against regulations" and just because there are idiots who will still hit themselves in the head, does not mean most of the other rational people are bashing their skulls in, too.
We regulate based on hot-button issues and the opinions of people writing the news and those in elected office now instead of common-sense and scientific research and it is utterly disgusting how easily people fall in line and bleat the same nonsensical bullshit like it is fact because "the government says so". Hell, New York is trying to regulate the size of a soda someone can sell you...what the fuck?
Agreed. In this scenario I had received a new card in the mail after my previous had expired and I had balance payoff in place on my statement due date. I check all my account statements at the end of the month which was one day after the payment had been submitted already so I called the CC company the next day and they didn't take to kindly to me asking for my money back. Ultimately it was a huge song and dance to get my money returned to me and to get the negative marks off of my credit history from the other payments that were supposed to utilize those funds.
Sorry I did not clarify properly. The fraud was reported the day after I noticed the money missing from my bank account. What happened is that a new card arrived in the mail since my previous had expired and thieves intercepted it. Only after my automatic balance payoff had submitted the payment to the CC company did I notice, the next day, and I then called my CC company to report it and was essentially told to 'prove it' because they already had my money. I don't do automatic payoff anymore obviously heh.
Did you mean to say that you had a debit card stolen from your mail? Because your story doesn't make any sense if a credit card was stolen. I'd also suggest that you should position yourself financially to better absorb a 3k hit. Living hand to mouth like this is just asking for trouble.
Actually it was a CC that was a new replacement for an expired card and my account already had automatic balance payoff in place. My balance was paid automatically (which I no longer do) so by the time I got around to my monthly statement review of all my accounts, it was already gone. Prying my money out of the CC company's hands was the painful part.
Also, many people can't build up a large safety net like this but I actually had around $13k in the bank 2.5 months before this happened (and I do have a sizeable retirement savings but most of it is locked away in IRAs or 401k). At that time, however my father and my wife both lost their jobs and I was paying 2 vehicle payments, our mortgage, and my parents' mortgage so the 'just in case' money went away because we were living in a 'just in case' scenario.
I have emergency savings and I have retirement savings. Every cent of my emergency savings was blown through in 5 months of paying my mortgage, both my car and my wife's car payments, and my parents' mortgage because my father and my wife lost their jobs almost simultaneously 2.5 months before this happened.
I could have cashed on some of my retirement savings but ultimately my bank account used for billing is where the issue occurred and what caused the hassle with the credit bureaus and getting everything repaired...the CC was a replacement of my expired one and I had automatic balance payoff on my account on the due date of my statement. The thieves charged $3k worth of goods on my card over a couple weeks and the balance was paid as normal and I only noticed when I went back to do my monthly billing and review of my charges and statements. At this point the money was paid to the CC agency and it was a matter of prying it from their hands and forcing them to communicate with the credit bureaus and my other lenders who I was late paying to resolve the negative marks on my credit history.
You are right that it isn't easy...I have been doing it for years and doing very well but even with 3 months of emergency funds things can happen that make that not enough.
Consider the fact that maybe I was in the exact emergency situation that you mentioned asshole. You are exactly correct in the amount of money that I make a year and I have quite a bit of savings tied up in IRAs, 401k, and mutual funds but that has no bearing on how this fucked me over.
My wife and my father simultaneously lost their jobs 2.5 months before this happened and I was paying my mortgage, 2 car payments, and my parents mortgage for 5 months straight so fuck yourself. Don't get me wrong, your situation sucks as well, but you are a prick.
This was a credit card that had expired and so I received a new one in the mail. It was set up for automatic balance payoff on each statement's due date and after activating the card the thieves charged up over $3000 in a 2 week period and the fraud detection did not catch it. I noticed on my next statement period when reviewing all my bills that everything was screwed and being that it was paid for I had to get the CC company to give me my money back.
Definitely CC fraud...and you are right that it sucked a lot.
They will repair your credit or you can sue them...after you prove it wasn't your fault. 95% of the time that's not a big deal but that other 5% of the time can force you to spend months fighting with credit agencies, interacting with local authorities, and demanding that your CC issuer repair your credit over and over before someone gets off their ass and pushes your paperwork through. I had to go through this and it took about 2 months before everything was back to normal and I ended up abut $1500 of my personal time wasted.
I agree with you on the 30 cards thing...smacks of bullshit to me. OR he is just the most financially irresponsible 70 year old in the world.
The minimum wage employee has to take the card from me for them to obtain my CC information and in almost every gas station I've been to you swipe your own card or have visual access to the person doing the swiping. In restaurants there is less access to view the payment being processed but it is highly suspicious when another employee sees them not following the process that everyone always follows for processing CC payments. Alternately, do what I do and just use cash when you go to a restaurant...the staff prefers tips they can take home right away and you don't even offer the opportunity for anyone to screw you over.
Ultimately internet transactions are the easiest, most faceless way to perform transactions and are therefore the most prone to fraud. A simple 5 minute check of the company and their payment processor is enough to tell you whether they are likely to be reliable or shady and that is what everyone is talking about here. If you just throw your credit card out there at random and rely on the fraud prevention system to save your ass, you're probably going to be ok 95% of the time. That 5% of the time though is going to rape you harder than you thought possible and you're going to be months in with a ton of your personal time wasted before you finally see your credit repaired and everything back to the way it was.
I speak from personal experience with CC fraud and I lost a little over $1500 dollars in my own personal time even though I did not have to pay out of pocket for the fraud that was committed. If you don't place a value on your personal time, go ahead and keep throwing your CC around randomly...all it takes is one time for fraud protection to fail and for the elements of human error to creep in to make your butt hurt.
The process to repair credit fraud can be extremely painful even with something as simple as a credit card and if you haven't had that happen to you yet then hooray for you. Ultimately the one time in a thousand is what fucks you and forces you to spend months repairing your credit because of human error or improper fraud detection, especially if you are a victim of credit fraud where the purchases are made in your local area.
You may be legally on the hook for $50 only and you may have to pay $0 out of pocket in the end but the time wasted fighting the process and fighting all the parties involved is worth money, too, and my time wasted cost me about $1500 bucks when all was said and done.
Just because you haven't been screwed once doesn't mean you're not next in line and it certainly doesn't mean your first time will be a simple phone call to fix. You are like someone who has never seen a car wreck that thinks "Oh this seatbelt thing is useless...even if I get in a car wreck I'll just bump my chest against the wheel a little bit...no biggie." The point is you have no idea what credit fraud repair entails and while you think it is more like smacking an annoying fly away, it is more like getting hit by a semi with no seatbelt on a lot of the time.
FYI - I seriously doubt the original poster was talking about spending days researching an organization or payment processor...more than likely he simply makes a judgement whether the company looks reliable and does a Google search to see who the payment processor is and how widely used they are. About 5 minutes can tell you whether it is worth risking it. You seem to think he is going on a trek through the alps to find a monk who knows all and can verify the trustworthiness of the payment processor or something.
You are obviously inexperienced with credit fraud and I really don't think you have any concept of what you are talking about. One phone call and months of hassle, not to mention possible negative marks on your credit history depending on the scale of the fraud. Credit fraud detection agencies don't always catch active fraud until sometimes thousands of dollars has been lost.
I have had my CC stolen out of my mail and charged $3000 forcing me to be late on my fucking house payment, my car payment, my insurance payment, and my cable bill. The fraud was reported the day after and STILL it took over TWO MONTHS to give my money back during which time I had 30 day lates on some of my payments because even though I called the organizations I was late on payments for, two of them "forgot" to process my fraud report. I then had to go through 3 months of back and forth with the companies, police, my bank, and Experian/Transunion just to repair my credit.
I spent approx 110 hours of my time repairing something something you say takes 'one phone call to fixup 99% of the things that happen' which is a lot of my money lost because I make $14/hr for every single hour in the day if you average my pay across all 24 hours every day. That's fucking $1540 in damage to my personal income so you are out of your mind when you say he is entertaining paranoid fantasies. Btw before you say "well that was physical CC fraud and not online", I have two customers and one relative that have horror stories WORSE than mine because they all just ASSUMED that online sites are secure and it wouldn't be a problem if something happened. Since there is still a human element to fraud detection/credit repair, shit can always get fucked up...badly.
Responses to your other points:
Do you background check every single person you ever give your CC number to? No, you do not.
There is something to be said for physically handing your credit card to someone and WATCHING THEM SWIPE IT or even SWIPING IT YOURSELF. Kinda makes it inherently more secure even though fraud does sometimes happen using devices that store the #.
The only "background check" you should do is check if SSL is on and if the company actually is real. Beyond that, you're entertaining your own paranoid fantasies.
Completely agree with the SSL check and verification that the company is real...I think the original poster your replied to agrees too because I doubt he is contacting a fucking agency to do a background check on the companies he purchases from. If he is actually doing that, you're right...way unnecessary...in point of fact, however, you are making huge sweeping assumptions about what he is saying and you're being a dick at the same time. You are completely wrong in every bit of your attitude and your concept of credit fraud also.
Or if the company is not amenable to the retainer idea, sell them a block of hours so you have a guaranteed dollar amount of revenue at your desired billable rate for them to use if they need or not. Ultimately I think you'll find that about 75% of the time companies will continue to purchase blocks of hours from you for critical support because they will see the value in having a backup resource to supplement their newer technician's knowledge. Also, there is perceived flexibility of using you only when needed as well as the idea that 'well we've already paid him for these hours, might as well use him' which turns out to happen more frequently than anyone thinks will happen.
Once you get under 5 hours of support time left in that agreement all it takes is one critical issue to take you over the zero threshold and if you build into the agreement an emergency service rate for out-of-agreement hours required you'll find that the first time that happens the company understands the need for your services MUCH more implicitly and you will continue to have signed agreements for blocks of hours well before your current block of hours is fully utilized just to ensure that you are continually available to support their environment.
It is a win-win-win - you train the technician and become his go-to resource for future work/projects/critical support, the company knows they can still rely on you for critical issues, and you begin work on a new project or with a new company while still supporting your previous employer/client on a semi-regular basis.
This is an extremely rational viewpoint to take. I work for an MSP in our projects division implementing complex network environments and a ton of virtualization for our customers and we frequently take our projects to a managed level as the OP appears to have done as well. We have found that after a customer environment has stabilized, these customers tend to be growing in size and scope over the term of our initial managed service agreement and eventually want to take most of the management in-house as a result. Ultimately while they may be extremely satisfied they perceive a threshold at which the recurring managed services costs get close to one or two lower level technicians that they can hire to maintain and grow with the company at an equal or lower cost.
Ultimately, we are contractors and we are not obligated to train their employees but we do so willingly because not only are we being paid for the time we invest into their engineers but we actually end up being able to free up resource time when done for newer projects and we do not require a staff of hundreds to turn projects AND support every one of our recurring customers. Of course the training is out of scoope of our managed services agreement and therefore we are paid time & engineering to support and train their new staff members but when done we have about a 99% success rate of then selling block-time agreements for supporting those customers and about 75% of the time, once the block of time has run out, a new block of time is sold thus continuing a managed services style engagement but with less hands-on involvement in the day to day 'my printer is not working' style simple issues that the staff techs can then handle.
Ultimately the new technicians are either going to be motivated knowledge sponges or, more commonly, will stagnate and reach a comfortable knowledge level within their own environment and continue to rely on our company to provide troubleshooting & support for critical issues beyond the scope of their abilities. In either scenario, I see the following benefits to our company:
Motiviated Knowledge Sponge
- Is able to quickly adapt to environments and continues to expand upon knowledge level
- Has been brought into an environment where his primary resource for knowledge of his daily operating environment was our company and therefore he knows he can rely on us for critical scenarios he cannot resolve or for new project deployments
- Continues to be a close contact or resource as his career progresses, likely with other companies which garners more project work for our company
- May see the benefit of potentially becoming an employee of a company such as ours and pursue a career with us and essentially the training cost of this employee has been subsidized by a separate entity at that point. This one can be iffy because some clients don't like having their employees hired away but most times the technician has progressed to the point that he is already pursuing higher pay than his current company is willing to shell out. We can return to a managed style services agreement, gain an knowledgeable and motivated technician, and he is still associated with their company by proxy and therefore the innate knowledge he has of the now more complex customer environment allows him to interface with them more easily and resolve trouble tickets rapidly while still being used as a technical resource for other contracts or projects.
Stagnant, Satisfied Technician
- Has been brought into an environment where his primary resource for knowledge of his daily operating environment was our company and therefore he knows he can rely on us for critical scenarios he cannot resolve or for new project deployments
- Continues to be a close contact or resource as his career progresses, likely with the same company which garners more project work for our company
- Typically does not have time (or in some cases, the desire) to escalate his knowledge level to critical troubles
I was just posting something to this effect but I'm glad I read further in the comments thread.
There are MANY reasons that EA has been having problems lately and Sim City isn't really one of them. If you notice, even despite the intermittent ongoing issues, Sim City has sold 1.1 million copies in 2 weeks and is still going strong as many people who have waited for the launch issues to die down start picking up their copies. I fucking hate EA and I despise their DRM platform and while I would LOVE for this to be the reason dude was ousted, it just looks like coincidence to me with regard to the timing. That's not to say that this isn't a straw/camel's back scenario but I just can't see that this was THE reason.
But then, given that 50% Android phones pay a tribute to MS, the Chinese government might get into trouble for being a pirate nation, unless of course they pay tribute to MS>
HAhahahahahahahahaha. The Chinese government might get in trouble for being a pirate nation? All they have to do is claim that they aren't involved in the government funded cloning of the technology as they currently do. In China, claims are enough...it's not like they will allow MS to come and inspect their development or their funding process. They will simply tell MS "Oh, we agree...there are just so many cloners out there that we don't know what to do!" MS will retort "You need to help us shut down these illegal cloning facilities and businesses immediately" to which China replies "Of COUUUURRRSE. We'll get RIGHT ON THAT."
The Chinese government doesn't really get in trouble anymore...they are quite efficient at deferring the risk and penalties to private entities and there is no way to enforce any oversight so MS can pretty much eat a middle finger.
Actually, as long as the jet requires a pilot to operate it that pilot requires sufficient oxygen to stay oriented and to avoid catastrophe so it is not damned good at all. Oxygen systems have been required in almost every modern figher in the last 50 years so it isn't like this is brand new technology. If this were a drone aircraft, sure! Being that this has caused one death and a lost F-22 already, however, I think this is sufficient reason to be concerned about the entire jet.
It doesn't exactly need 'futzing with'...the military believes that a combination of several different systems' tuning and issues that they have apparently fixed were the cause...but they're not sure:
The "mosaic" of issues, Lyon said, includes a malfunctioning valve on the pilot's upper pressure vest, the size and shape of hoses and connectors in the pilot's gear and, for a period, a charcoal filter that the Air Force installed after the problems began to try and catch potential contaminates.
Instead of re-evaluating the system when experts first brought it to the Air Force's attention, they decided that the recommended fixes would be too expensive on the already overbudget jet and they basically said 'fuck it' and let one of our servicemen die. Now, experienced Air Force fighter pilots (not exactly the type known to be sissies) across the country refuse to fly this jet because it is unsafe. But that's pretty damned good, right?
I have a general understanding of what you said but reading through your post and the AC response discussing Muon Catalyzed Fusion made me realize what my parents and wife feel like as I explain advanced networking principles to them. Well played...brain sad...brain cry now.
Do what now? I'm not really sure where you were going with your comment but I personally know of people in 3rd party contractor organizations that participate in cyberwarfare (I obviously don't know what they do or who they target). I don't see where the parent said the US was targeting civilians, newspapers, or non-military corps, just that the organization and 3rd parties exist.
If the intent is to imply that the US gov't has a cyberwarfare division and does use it in the manner you stated while denying it, I don't doubt that you are correct...but that would be exactly a pot/kettle situation. If you're saying that the Chinese target civilians, newspapers, and non-military corporations while the US government does not, I think you're kinda naive...the difference is that the Chinese are attacking us and the US cyberwarfare division and 3rd parties are not (I assume most of the time at least).
Not to Apple-hate (even though I do hate Apple), but I think police depts would be better served by a cheap as hell 7" off-brand Android tablet than the budget-breaking iPad...there are a plethora of apps that can provide the same type of lockdown and I'm certain that if this were a standard budgeted item there would be several companies created to provide police-grade lockdown capabilities.
Ultimately you have to think that some detainees are going to literally throw the thing on the ground to piss off their jailers and replacing a $120 Android vs a $330 iPad Mini is much more feasible. Granted, either way the detainee is going to be responsible for damaging police property but many people simply serve their time instead of paying and I would much rather the tax $$ that goes to police be spent on other things like more officers and things that are, y'know, important.
I am forced to watch Dr. Who by my significant other on the regular and Raxacoricofallapatorius is stuck in my brain permanently...it is a pretty awesome name for a planet.
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They also "regulate" the labeling of cigarette packs by forcing manufacturers to change language like "Light" on their packages because they believe we are all retarded enough to believe that "Light" cigarettes are healthy. Now we have "Bold" and "Blue" and various other names, some of which are even more misleading than "Light" because the government "regulations" say that makes sense.
Ultimately words in advertisement have been banned whether you call it regulation or not. Obviously some things need regulation and oversight such as enforcing driving standards but I agree with the previous poster in that a lot of government "regulations" sure smack of bans these day. They come under the guise of protecting us and our children when it should be us protecting ourselves and our children through some self control and some personal responsibility. We should not need nanny government to come in and say "Don't hit yourself in the head with that hammer...that's against regulations" and just because there are idiots who will still hit themselves in the head, does not mean most of the other rational people are bashing their skulls in, too.
We regulate based on hot-button issues and the opinions of people writing the news and those in elected office now instead of common-sense and scientific research and it is utterly disgusting how easily people fall in line and bleat the same nonsensical bullshit like it is fact because "the government says so". Hell, New York is trying to regulate the size of a soda someone can sell you...what the fuck?
Agreed. In this scenario I had received a new card in the mail after my previous had expired and I had balance payoff in place on my statement due date. I check all my account statements at the end of the month which was one day after the payment had been submitted already so I called the CC company the next day and they didn't take to kindly to me asking for my money back. Ultimately it was a huge song and dance to get my money returned to me and to get the negative marks off of my credit history from the other payments that were supposed to utilize those funds.
Sorry I did not clarify properly. The fraud was reported the day after I noticed the money missing from my bank account. What happened is that a new card arrived in the mail since my previous had expired and thieves intercepted it. Only after my automatic balance payoff had submitted the payment to the CC company did I notice, the next day, and I then called my CC company to report it and was essentially told to 'prove it' because they already had my money. I don't do automatic payoff anymore obviously heh.
Did you mean to say that you had a debit card stolen from your mail? Because your story doesn't make any sense if a credit card was stolen. I'd also suggest that you should position yourself financially to better absorb a 3k hit. Living hand to mouth like this is just asking for trouble.
Actually it was a CC that was a new replacement for an expired card and my account already had automatic balance payoff in place. My balance was paid automatically (which I no longer do) so by the time I got around to my monthly statement review of all my accounts, it was already gone. Prying my money out of the CC company's hands was the painful part.
Also, many people can't build up a large safety net like this but I actually had around $13k in the bank 2.5 months before this happened (and I do have a sizeable retirement savings but most of it is locked away in IRAs or 401k). At that time, however my father and my wife both lost their jobs and I was paying 2 vehicle payments, our mortgage, and my parents' mortgage so the 'just in case' money went away because we were living in a 'just in case' scenario.
I have emergency savings and I have retirement savings. Every cent of my emergency savings was blown through in 5 months of paying my mortgage, both my car and my wife's car payments, and my parents' mortgage because my father and my wife lost their jobs almost simultaneously 2.5 months before this happened.
I could have cashed on some of my retirement savings but ultimately my bank account used for billing is where the issue occurred and what caused the hassle with the credit bureaus and getting everything repaired...the CC was a replacement of my expired one and I had automatic balance payoff on my account on the due date of my statement. The thieves charged $3k worth of goods on my card over a couple weeks and the balance was paid as normal and I only noticed when I went back to do my monthly billing and review of my charges and statements. At this point the money was paid to the CC agency and it was a matter of prying it from their hands and forcing them to communicate with the credit bureaus and my other lenders who I was late paying to resolve the negative marks on my credit history.
You are right that it isn't easy...I have been doing it for years and doing very well but even with 3 months of emergency funds things can happen that make that not enough.
Consider the fact that maybe I was in the exact emergency situation that you mentioned asshole. You are exactly correct in the amount of money that I make a year and I have quite a bit of savings tied up in IRAs, 401k, and mutual funds but that has no bearing on how this fucked me over.
My wife and my father simultaneously lost their jobs 2.5 months before this happened and I was paying my mortgage, 2 car payments, and my parents mortgage for 5 months straight so fuck yourself. Don't get me wrong, your situation sucks as well, but you are a prick.
This was a credit card that had expired and so I received a new one in the mail. It was set up for automatic balance payoff on each statement's due date and after activating the card the thieves charged up over $3000 in a 2 week period and the fraud detection did not catch it. I noticed on my next statement period when reviewing all my bills that everything was screwed and being that it was paid for I had to get the CC company to give me my money back.
Definitely CC fraud...and you are right that it sucked a lot.
They will repair your credit or you can sue them...after you prove it wasn't your fault. 95% of the time that's not a big deal but that other 5% of the time can force you to spend months fighting with credit agencies, interacting with local authorities, and demanding that your CC issuer repair your credit over and over before someone gets off their ass and pushes your paperwork through. I had to go through this and it took about 2 months before everything was back to normal and I ended up abut $1500 of my personal time wasted.
I agree with you on the 30 cards thing...smacks of bullshit to me. OR he is just the most financially irresponsible 70 year old in the world.
The minimum wage employee has to take the card from me for them to obtain my CC information and in almost every gas station I've been to you swipe your own card or have visual access to the person doing the swiping. In restaurants there is less access to view the payment being processed but it is highly suspicious when another employee sees them not following the process that everyone always follows for processing CC payments. Alternately, do what I do and just use cash when you go to a restaurant...the staff prefers tips they can take home right away and you don't even offer the opportunity for anyone to screw you over.
Ultimately internet transactions are the easiest, most faceless way to perform transactions and are therefore the most prone to fraud. A simple 5 minute check of the company and their payment processor is enough to tell you whether they are likely to be reliable or shady and that is what everyone is talking about here. If you just throw your credit card out there at random and rely on the fraud prevention system to save your ass, you're probably going to be ok 95% of the time. That 5% of the time though is going to rape you harder than you thought possible and you're going to be months in with a ton of your personal time wasted before you finally see your credit repaired and everything back to the way it was.
I speak from personal experience with CC fraud and I lost a little over $1500 dollars in my own personal time even though I did not have to pay out of pocket for the fraud that was committed. If you don't place a value on your personal time, go ahead and keep throwing your CC around randomly...all it takes is one time for fraud protection to fail and for the elements of human error to creep in to make your butt hurt.
See my post here because you also have no concept of how credit fraud can fuck you over: http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3566081&cid=43230369 [slashdot.org]
The process to repair credit fraud can be extremely painful even with something as simple as a credit card and if you haven't had that happen to you yet then hooray for you. Ultimately the one time in a thousand is what fucks you and forces you to spend months repairing your credit because of human error or improper fraud detection, especially if you are a victim of credit fraud where the purchases are made in your local area.
You may be legally on the hook for $50 only and you may have to pay $0 out of pocket in the end but the time wasted fighting the process and fighting all the parties involved is worth money, too, and my time wasted cost me about $1500 bucks when all was said and done.
See my post here because you also have no concept of how credit fraud can fuck you over: http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3566081&cid=43230369
Just because you haven't been screwed once doesn't mean you're not next in line and it certainly doesn't mean your first time will be a simple phone call to fix. You are like someone who has never seen a car wreck that thinks "Oh this seatbelt thing is useless...even if I get in a car wreck I'll just bump my chest against the wheel a little bit...no biggie." The point is you have no idea what credit fraud repair entails and while you think it is more like smacking an annoying fly away, it is more like getting hit by a semi with no seatbelt on a lot of the time.
FYI - I seriously doubt the original poster was talking about spending days researching an organization or payment processor...more than likely he simply makes a judgement whether the company looks reliable and does a Google search to see who the payment processor is and how widely used they are. About 5 minutes can tell you whether it is worth risking it. You seem to think he is going on a trek through the alps to find a monk who knows all and can verify the trustworthiness of the payment processor or something.
I have had my CC stolen out of my mail and charged $3000 forcing me to be late on my fucking house payment, my car payment, my insurance payment, and my cable bill. The fraud was reported the day after and STILL it took over TWO MONTHS to give my money back during which time I had 30 day lates on some of my payments because even though I called the organizations I was late on payments for, two of them "forgot" to process my fraud report. I then had to go through 3 months of back and forth with the companies, police, my bank, and Experian/Transunion just to repair my credit.
I spent approx 110 hours of my time repairing something something you say takes 'one phone call to fixup 99% of the things that happen' which is a lot of my money lost because I make $14/hr for every single hour in the day if you average my pay across all 24 hours every day. That's fucking $1540 in damage to my personal income so you are out of your mind when you say he is entertaining paranoid fantasies. Btw before you say "well that was physical CC fraud and not online", I have two customers and one relative that have horror stories WORSE than mine because they all just ASSUMED that online sites are secure and it wouldn't be a problem if something happened. Since there is still a human element to fraud detection/credit repair, shit can always get fucked up...badly.
Responses to your other points:
Do you background check every single person you ever give your CC number to? No, you do not.
There is something to be said for physically handing your credit card to someone and WATCHING THEM SWIPE IT or even SWIPING IT YOURSELF. Kinda makes it inherently more secure even though fraud does sometimes happen using devices that store the #.
The only "background check" you should do is check if SSL is on and if the company actually is real. Beyond that, you're entertaining your own paranoid fantasies.
Completely agree with the SSL check and verification that the company is real...I think the original poster your replied to agrees too because I doubt he is contacting a fucking agency to do a background check on the companies he purchases from. If he is actually doing that, you're right...way unnecessary...in point of fact, however, you are making huge sweeping assumptions about what he is saying and you're being a dick at the same time. You are completely wrong in every bit of your attitude and your concept of credit fraud also.
Or if the company is not amenable to the retainer idea, sell them a block of hours so you have a guaranteed dollar amount of revenue at your desired billable rate for them to use if they need or not. Ultimately I think you'll find that about 75% of the time companies will continue to purchase blocks of hours from you for critical support because they will see the value in having a backup resource to supplement their newer technician's knowledge. Also, there is perceived flexibility of using you only when needed as well as the idea that 'well we've already paid him for these hours, might as well use him' which turns out to happen more frequently than anyone thinks will happen.
Once you get under 5 hours of support time left in that agreement all it takes is one critical issue to take you over the zero threshold and if you build into the agreement an emergency service rate for out-of-agreement hours required you'll find that the first time that happens the company understands the need for your services MUCH more implicitly and you will continue to have signed agreements for blocks of hours well before your current block of hours is fully utilized just to ensure that you are continually available to support their environment.
It is a win-win-win - you train the technician and become his go-to resource for future work/projects/critical support, the company knows they can still rely on you for critical issues, and you begin work on a new project or with a new company while still supporting your previous employer/client on a semi-regular basis.
This is an extremely rational viewpoint to take. I work for an MSP in our projects division implementing complex network environments and a ton of virtualization for our customers and we frequently take our projects to a managed level as the OP appears to have done as well. We have found that after a customer environment has stabilized, these customers tend to be growing in size and scope over the term of our initial managed service agreement and eventually want to take most of the management in-house as a result. Ultimately while they may be extremely satisfied they perceive a threshold at which the recurring managed services costs get close to one or two lower level technicians that they can hire to maintain and grow with the company at an equal or lower cost.
Ultimately, we are contractors and we are not obligated to train their employees but we do so willingly because not only are we being paid for the time we invest into their engineers but we actually end up being able to free up resource time when done for newer projects and we do not require a staff of hundreds to turn projects AND support every one of our recurring customers. Of course the training is out of scoope of our managed services agreement and therefore we are paid time & engineering to support and train their new staff members but when done we have about a 99% success rate of then selling block-time agreements for supporting those customers and about 75% of the time, once the block of time has run out, a new block of time is sold thus continuing a managed services style engagement but with less hands-on involvement in the day to day 'my printer is not working' style simple issues that the staff techs can then handle.
Ultimately the new technicians are either going to be motivated knowledge sponges or, more commonly, will stagnate and reach a comfortable knowledge level within their own environment and continue to rely on our company to provide troubleshooting & support for critical issues beyond the scope of their abilities. In either scenario, I see the following benefits to our company:
Motiviated Knowledge Sponge
- Is able to quickly adapt to environments and continues to expand upon knowledge level
- Has been brought into an environment where his primary resource for knowledge of his daily operating environment was our company and therefore he knows he can rely on us for critical scenarios he cannot resolve or for new project deployments
- Continues to be a close contact or resource as his career progresses, likely with other companies which garners more project work for our company
- May see the benefit of potentially becoming an employee of a company such as ours and pursue a career with us and essentially the training cost of this employee has been subsidized by a separate entity at that point. This one can be iffy because some clients don't like having their employees hired away but most times the technician has progressed to the point that he is already pursuing higher pay than his current company is willing to shell out. We can return to a managed style services agreement, gain an knowledgeable and motivated technician, and he is still associated with their company by proxy and therefore the innate knowledge he has of the now more complex customer environment allows him to interface with them more easily and resolve trouble tickets rapidly while still being used as a technical resource for other contracts or projects.
Stagnant, Satisfied Technician
- Has been brought into an environment where his primary resource for knowledge of his daily operating environment was our company and therefore he knows he can rely on us for critical scenarios he cannot resolve or for new project deployments
- Continues to be a close contact or resource as his career progresses, likely with the same company which garners more project work for our company
- Typically does not have time (or in some cases, the desire) to escalate his knowledge level to critical troubles
I was just posting something to this effect but I'm glad I read further in the comments thread.
There are MANY reasons that EA has been having problems lately and Sim City isn't really one of them. If you notice, even despite the intermittent ongoing issues, Sim City has sold 1.1 million copies in 2 weeks and is still going strong as many people who have waited for the launch issues to die down start picking up their copies. I fucking hate EA and I despise their DRM platform and while I would LOVE for this to be the reason dude was ousted, it just looks like coincidence to me with regard to the timing. That's not to say that this isn't a straw/camel's back scenario but I just can't see that this was THE reason.
But then, given that 50% Android phones pay a tribute to MS, the Chinese government might get into trouble for being a pirate nation, unless of course they pay tribute to MS>
HAhahahahahahahahaha. The Chinese government might get in trouble for being a pirate nation? All they have to do is claim that they aren't involved in the government funded cloning of the technology as they currently do. In China, claims are enough...it's not like they will allow MS to come and inspect their development or their funding process. They will simply tell MS "Oh, we agree...there are just so many cloners out there that we don't know what to do!" MS will retort "You need to help us shut down these illegal cloning facilities and businesses immediately" to which China replies "Of COUUUURRRSE. We'll get RIGHT ON THAT."
The Chinese government doesn't really get in trouble anymore...they are quite efficient at deferring the risk and penalties to private entities and there is no way to enforce any oversight so MS can pretty much eat a middle finger.
It doesn't exactly need 'futzing with'...the military believes that a combination of several different systems' tuning and issues that they have apparently fixed were the cause...but they're not sure:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/air-force-smoking-gun-22-problems/story?id=16898676
The "mosaic" of issues, Lyon said, includes a malfunctioning valve on the pilot's upper pressure vest, the size and shape of hoses and connectors in the pilot's gear and, for a period, a charcoal filter that the Air Force installed after the problems began to try and catch potential contaminates.
Instead of re-evaluating the system when experts first brought it to the Air Force's attention, they decided that the recommended fixes would be too expensive on the already overbudget jet and they basically said 'fuck it' and let one of our servicemen die. Now, experienced Air Force fighter pilots (not exactly the type known to be sissies) across the country refuse to fly this jet because it is unsafe. But that's pretty damned good, right?
The problem is that is one patent amongst millions of other trash patents, the majority of which are owned by corporate entities.
If one engine dies on the F35, your in the drink.
My in the drink? Please explain
It also hasn't been flown in combat because a growing number of F-22 pilots refuse to fly them. Apparently being able to breathe is pretty critical.
Please mod parent up. I wish I had mod points.
I have a general understanding of what you said but reading through your post and the AC response discussing Muon Catalyzed Fusion made me realize what my parents and wife feel like as I explain advanced networking principles to them. Well played...brain sad...brain cry now.
Do what now? I'm not really sure where you were going with your comment but I personally know of people in 3rd party contractor organizations that participate in cyberwarfare (I obviously don't know what they do or who they target). I don't see where the parent said the US was targeting civilians, newspapers, or non-military corps, just that the organization and 3rd parties exist.
If the intent is to imply that the US gov't has a cyberwarfare division and does use it in the manner you stated while denying it, I don't doubt that you are correct...but that would be exactly a pot/kettle situation. If you're saying that the Chinese target civilians, newspapers, and non-military corporations while the US government does not, I think you're kinda naive...the difference is that the Chinese are attacking us and the US cyberwarfare division and 3rd parties are not (I assume most of the time at least).
Not to Apple-hate (even though I do hate Apple), but I think police depts would be better served by a cheap as hell 7" off-brand Android tablet than the budget-breaking iPad...there are a plethora of apps that can provide the same type of lockdown and I'm certain that if this were a standard budgeted item there would be several companies created to provide police-grade lockdown capabilities.
Ultimately you have to think that some detainees are going to literally throw the thing on the ground to piss off their jailers and replacing a $120 Android vs a $330 iPad Mini is much more feasible. Granted, either way the detainee is going to be responsible for damaging police property but many people simply serve their time instead of paying and I would much rather the tax $$ that goes to police be spent on other things like more officers and things that are, y'know, important.
I am forced to watch Dr. Who by my significant other on the regular and Raxacoricofallapatorius is stuck in my brain permanently...it is a pretty awesome name for a planet.