Actually, there are already bars like that in existence. The prices for each drink are set based on current demand. If everybody is ordering PBR and no one is buying Chimay, the price of PBR will go up and the price of Chimay will go down. Once everyone starts buying up the cheap Chimay, then the price goes back up again. I have never been to one of these places but seen them featured on TV. Check out Exchange Bar and Grill in NYC.

they're probably teaching it because they found out a lot of their incoming students were deficient in skills that would allow them to write papers or lab reports for other classes they need to take

This.

I had to take a similar course my first year of college. I was in the business school planning on majoring in Management Information Systems (MIS), but everyone in the business school had to take Intro to MIS. From the title, you would think the goal of the course would be get people with undeclared majors to be interested in majoring in MIS. It was very clear from the curriculum and even more clear once we got to our higher level business classess that that was not the goal. The goal was to make sure everyone knew how to use MS Excel very well. Sure we talked about what a computer is, software vs. hardware, OS vs. application, etc, etc, but much of the course involved going throught the MS Excel 2000 workbook excercise by excercise. Was it a bit mindless? Sure, but not only was that course invaluable in my career (I use Excel every day), but it was invaluable just to pass every other class I took. Every accounting course required the use of Excel. Statistics required Excel. Calculus required Excel. Operations Management, Micro/Macro/International Econimics, Finance, Excel, Excel, Excel. Point is, if you didn't know how to use Excel at an above-basic level, you were already playing catch-up.

I will second this option. My company uses Good for Enterprise on both Android and iPhone. The nice thing about it is that it is YOUR phone that happens to have a an app on it to access your work e-mail, calendar and contacts. You can view attachments, but not download them to the actual device. The app itself is password protected so you can choose your own level of security for the rest of your phone. The only bad part is that, well, naming an app "Good" will always result in it being bad. The interface is a bit clunky (GMail app, blackberry mail, etc. are all much more enjoyable to use) and I often have the issue of it not syncing regularly when i'm on WiFi (for some reason it's much more reliable on even a week mobile data connection). Additionally, the app will not install on a rooted or jailbroken phone (for security reasons). The geek in me wants to root my phone, but the other part of me that needs a fully functioning and reliable smartphone is happy limits were put in place. But despite the downsides, it does what I need it to do and it's liveable. The company is happy that their data is encrypted and sandboxed from the rest of the phone. I'm happy that I can do what I want with MY phone and don't have to worry about some rogue app messing with work data. The only

As someone who is having his first child in just over one month, I have very recently been looking at these options and have chosen a public bank. For the question of Public vs. Private vs. nothing, I think other slashdotters have covered it. Private is expensive and it's unlikely you'll need it. Public can do help for someone right now. Doing nothing is just throwing a promising resource in the trash. That's just my two cents about that. So let's say you have chosen the Public option. Well, here is where Slashdot is not well suited. You should be talking to both the hospital you plan to deliver at and your OB. I'm sure your OB has already given you all of the pamphlets, so you have an idea of what companies do what. If not, ask for them. Then talk to your hospital about which banks they work with. Depending on where the hospital is, what health system it's part of, etc. will determine which banks are available to you. This should narrow your list considerably. Then cross-reference the hospital's list with your OB's. Some OB's will charge for the collection, even for donations. Again, ask your OB if there is any charge for donations. I would be surprised if after talking to the hospital and your OB if you would even have a choice of which bank to use, so don't waste your time agonising over which bank is best.

Why do all the mid-westerners feel the need to turn this into a dick-waving contest. We get it, you get lots of snow. The amount of snow we got was far less than what you would refer to as a "dusting". Well, guess what, this wasn't a significant amount of snow for us either. This amount usually results in a day off school/work and some travel inconveniences. What we don't normally have, is massive amounts of tree damage (which happens to fall on power lines, house, cars and people). As stated numerous times was the fact that all of the trees still had leaves means a lot of weight building up on the trees.

The situation sucks for most of us. Not encased in an ice tomb suck, but no power for a week (predicting) and significant property damage suck. So quit the superiority complex. No one thinks your awesome for having lots of snow. In fact, most of us think the opposite.

This. I am one of those who was severely affected. Currently no power (not expecting fix for at least a weak) and I now have a 20 ft. branch speared through my roof. Luckily in hit the part of the roof that overhangs, so it didn't breach the actual inside of the house, but it will require immediate repair. But I digress. I live in NJ and we have our fair share of snowstorms. Nothing like MN, but the last two winters brought us plenty of multi-foot snow storms. No major power outages. The only inconvenience is travel. I have never experienced a power outage during snow season that I can recall.

However, while checking out my new "flag pole" in the middle of Saturday's storm, all I could hear and see around my was the snap, crackle and pop of limbs breaking around me. I quickly decided that outdoors was not a safe place to be given the number of trees around me. Regardless of the weather, when tree limbs fall, power goes out. Weather that causes a significant amount of tree damage means a significant amount of power outages.

What most people don't seem to understand is that because most of the leaves are still on the trees, they are collecting a significantly larger amount of snow on the branches than in the middle of the winter. The limbs just can't handle the weight. This snow was also very wet and heavy. Great snowball snow. I saw more downed limbs during this storm than I did during hurricane Irene, and we were hit pretty bad by that storm too. Mostly flooding from that one. If Irene hadn't taken out all of the weaker limbs, the snowstorm would have caused even more destruction than it did.

If Minnesota got hit with the same storm, you would see similar amounts of destruction, assuming you live in an area with trees and above ground power lines.

If you are a Verizon FiOS customer, each of your set top boxes counts as a node on your network. For me that's 2 set top boxes on top of the 2 desktops, 2 - 3 Laptops, 2 Smartphones and 1 Wii. My TV has ethernet, but it is generally not used (i.e. not a "smart" TV).

First, no one said anything about civil disobedience. While civil disobedience is a form of protest, it does not cover all protests. Second, I don't think you quite understand what civil disobedience is. Basically, you find a law to be unjust, so you get lots of people together in to peacefully break that law in a very public place, preferably with lots of media coverage. The cops then show up and arrest everybody in front of all of the news cameras. If the group of protesters is large enough, maybe not all of them will be arrested, but at least some will be. You go into this act knowing full well that you WILL be arrested. The goal is to capture the absurdity of enforcing such a law on camera for the world to see. You do everything you can to make your groups actions peaceful, especially if you expect an aggressive response from the cops. This helps emphasize the absurdity. However, the key here is that you don't get a free pass just because you are protesters. Those who break the law are arrested. If you don't like the law, then try to change it. I hear civil disobedience is great for that.

Ale vs Lager only refers to the type of yeast and the temperature at which it was fermented. It has nothing to do with the color/opacity. While most ales the typical beer drinker encounters are darker than lagers, there are plenty of examples of lager styles that are very dark (e.g. doppelbock). Also, color does not always tell you how much flavor the beer has. It is just an indicator of which flavors you are likely to have more of, and even then, there are ways of making a really dark, yet relatively flavorless beer. For example, a beer that used a lot of "black patent malt" but is otherwise light on barley malt and hops would be as black as a Guinness but as flavorful as a Keystone Light.

Facebook clearly does not know much about the pharmaceutical industry or the current debates going on in the industry about the role social media plays. I do consulting work for the pharmaceutical industry and have done a lot of work specifically with manufacturer sponsored web portals, use of social media, and drug safety in general. I can't say one way or another whether any of these companies should take down their pages, but there is very real risks involved with keeping them open. This has nothing to do with conspiracies about silencing bad publicity or any of the other crackpot theories out there. This has everything to do with the FDA and not getting fined or sued into oblivion. Here are some of the issues facing the pharma industry and social media:

Adverse Events: This is the official title for "when bad shit happens while taking our drug." This could be anything from a runny nose to death. Mostly only the more serious stuff even gets reported, but regardless, if something negative happens while taking a drug, the manufacturer wants to know about it. Not only that, but the FDA requires regular reporting on this. However, there are certain qualifications for an Adverse Event to be official. You need a drug, a patient, an event, and an indication (what you were taking it for). Without all 4, you don't have a reportable adverse event. The issue here is that the pharma company is worried about AE's reported over the internet in chatrooms and forums and what their responsibility is around this. The FDA has not yet made this crystal clear, but everyone seems to agree that you need to follow-up on any events posted to your own sites. For independent sites, you should be doing monitoring, but you don't need to report to the FDA unless the event is reportable (meets the 4 criteria). Due to the anonymity of online posts, this is usually impossible.

Off Label Use of Drugs: Off label use means the drug is being used for an indication that the FDA has not approved the drug for. This is very common with cancer treatments or any other areas where treatments are often experimental in nature. The drug may be approved by the FDA for treatment of diabetes, but a doctor may find that it is effective against a certain cancer. The FDA may approve this use in the future, but until that time, the manufacturer is not allowed to promote this type of use (Pfizer has been fined billions for violating this in the past few years). If people promote off label on 3rd party sites, then that's fine, but it cannot appear on a manufacturer owned site. Even though it's Facebook, it still counts as the manufacturers site.

Fair Balance: You know when you watch a commercial for a drug and after telling you all about the wonderful things a really fast voice tells you about all of the side effects and what not that might not be so great? That's called fair balance and it is required by the FDA. You see it on all of their web sites too. Anytime a promotional claim is made about a drug, fair balance must be provided. This has made twitter use very tricky since fair balance statements usually go way beyond 140 characters. If someone posts on the manufacturer's facebook page that the drug did something wonderful for them, then there needs to be fair balance attached. That can be tricky if you you're the manufacturer, since not only do you have to provide fair balance for your statements, but also for everyone else's.

The FDA has yet to provide guidance on social media: This is the biggest thing of all and it is why each of the points I made above are an issue. The rules of the FDA were not created when social media existed and they still have not been interpreted into social media by the FDA themselves. I'm sure there are some reasonable exceptions or changes that could be made given the current use of the medium overall, but we just don't know for sure yet. Most companies are cautiously making their own best guesses on what they feel is reasonable and still keeps them covered, but these are best guesses and the FDA could still fine them. The FDA has promised guidance, but keeps delaying. Until they do provide guidance, many companies will be super conservative (like those who just took down their pages) and others will be a little more brave, but it is risky just to be in social media at all as a pharmaceutical company.

Memory leaks and not enough memory is the main reason. Instability and bugs are another (Mine crashed and rebooted itself this morning and then froze when it came back up. 2 battery pulls later and its finally working again). Every time you install or update an app you need to reboot as well (I have an update ready, but am putting it off until I know i won't be needing my phone - a.k.a. Bedtime) But the worst part about reboots is how long they take. From the time you pull the battery to the time it is usable can take TEN FUCKING MINUTES! That's unacceptable on a desktop OS, why would it ever be acceptable on phone!?!? If I only had to reboot once in a blue moon, maybe I wouldn't care as much, but as stated above, rebooting is a way of life with this thing.

Yes, Blackberries are VERY good for business. I currently use one and it's the reason I first got a Blackberry three years ago. I stayed with Blackberry because my eventual employer was a Blackberry only company and issued a free Blackberry to all employees, including covering all service costs (voice, text, data w/ tethering). I am up for an upgrade this month and for the first time in the history of my company, I have the option to choose something other than a Blackberry. I never thought this would happen since my company is so obsessed with security. I plan on picking Android, but I also have the options for an iPhone. Why? Because people don't just use smartphones for business anymore. There are only 3 functions that I use on my Blackberry that are truly business only: E-mail, Calendar, Contacts. The rest are both personal and business. I have a demand for both business and personal use of a smartphone and I don't want to carry around two devices to do it. My job is very mobile with loosely defined hours. I can't just arrive at work with my business phone and leave work with my personal phone. Practically, it would seem stupid to carry two smartphones for business and personal, yet up until my company began offering non-Blackberries, many people did. I would ask them why. Their response, "I have a need for a good smartphone in my personal life and the Blackberry I was issued just doesn't cut it." I have always made due, maximizing the personal functions more than anyone else I knew with a Blackberry, but the use cases for a smartphone are becoming increasingly focused on personal and not business. My business uses have remained flat. I want more out of my phone and RIM is not providing more. They haven't even released anything new for my carrier since my last upgrade, which was to a phone that had already been out for a year.

Businesses are listening more and more to their users and less to their IT department about smartphones. Users want to use iPhones and Androids. The IT departments are finding ways to make that work. My company uses the Good for Enterprise client on the Androids and iPhones. It essentially sandboxes all of the business functions from the rest of the phone. While colleagues have said that the client doesn't really live up to its name, they are much happier with their non-blackberries. The article is right, RIM just doesn't get it. There is no separation between Business and Consumer. They should be making the great consumer phones that are also great business phones. iPhones and Androids are great consumer phones but they are not ideal business phones. That means there is opportunity for RIM. But unless, they come out with a something like this soon, they will continue to lose existing customers to those who make great consumer phones.

Agreed. I bought a 2003 Porsche Boxster with only 10k miles on it for $20k. Expensive to maintain, though. It is also my daily driver, and an extremely enjoyable daily driver at that. However, I likely couldn't daily drive a Ferrari or Lamborghini.

Cell phones seemed to be standardizing, so why not laptops? Most phones now have standardized on mini or micro usb for charging where in the past, every phone that came out, even ones by the same manufacturer, all seemed to be different. Maybe that's because most cellphones don't last much more than a year and the power supply outlives the phone?

And as one poster has already stated above, Dell has been pretty consistent with their power supplies for a while now. I've actually amassed quite the collection across multiple models of Dell laptop I've had since 2004. All are interchangeable. Although I should note that the voltage has gone up in the newer power supplies, but the lower voltage ones will still charge your battery, just a little slower. While the manufacturers may miss being able to charge you a huge margin on replacements, they may like the reduction in costs from outsourcing the power supplies to generic manufacturers. I'm sure they already do outsource, but those generic manufacturers can offer the things at much lower prices since the number of different models they need to produce will be much lower.

You read my mind. This is what ASCAP and BMI are for. Yes YouTube could probably pay a license fee to cover all videos uploaded, but you could also put responsibility on the user to pay the fees. By ASCAP's current enforcement methods, it would involve reaching out to the performer or venue and requesting the necessary fees. If they decline, lawyers get involved. As far as I know, this is a civil issue, not a criminal one. Why are we making more laws when we already have a system in place?