Chase took away credit score monitoring and then raised rates and fees on everything and then raised them some more. Free credit score report every month was the only reason to have a relatively high rate WaMu card in the first place. You're correct that there wasn't a bank run and no one lost all of their money. It is ignorant to say that people didn't get screwed when WaMu became Chase and that everyone didn't get screwed by less competition in the banking industry after every bank created new fees and ridiculously high interest rates on credit when the prime rate is the lowest is has been since the the mid 50's.

Many states and countries already have a Good Samaraitan law that covers this situation. The other side, failing to render aid, is covered under duty to rescue laws.

Lucas Art's Sam and Max Hit the Road had you flip to a page and dress the on screen paper doll style characters up like they are dressed up on the manual page. The game has been replicated in Flash http://axigan.deviantart.com/art/Sam-and-Max-Dressup-game-77720716

I don't know what the current exchange rate with Vietnam is, but my suggestion is soggy dong. Best if delivered by James May on a Honda Cub.

I was expecting this to be about the game Kingdom of Loathing where meat is a currency as well as an item used to build other items.

But the guy in Oregon is named Bruce Campbell and lives in Hillsboro. Not THE Bruce Campbell though. THE Bruce Campbell lives in Jacksonville, Oregon.

Montana is horrible. You don't want to live there. It's all cows. Seriously though, would Californians please quit f-ing up the Montana economy!

Labor laws in the US came out of union pushing for the laws directly or from setting a standard for work that was later adopted in to law. I suspect it is the same in Canada and the US has fallen behind in labor law because of the decline of unions in this country. Currently Canada has almost 30% union density where the US has less than 10% union density. So it isn't surprising that Canada has far better labor laws. In industries that are in highly competitive labor markets union wins benefit everyone. FedEx is not union organized but has good pay and benefits generally because UPS union workers have created a standard in the industry. We have had a number of Canadians work at the organization I work for who have moved back to Canada because working conditions were terrible. I receive excellent benefits and horrible pay. My total compensation is about average but the workload and working conditions are often abysmal. Ironically I work for an organization that fights unjust, unfair, and illegal labor practices while practicing those same things with their own staff.

It makes sense when you remember that these contracts exist to funnel tax payer money to corporations not to actually produce anything useful.

He could move to Oregon. IANAL but I believe what he wants to do would be legal under Oregon's Death with Dignity Act. IIRC Washington has a similar law and Montana has legalized assisted suicide.

They should use their own union labor and quit wasting money by using contractors in the private sector that take the money and run. Whats that? You oppose union labor and paying living wages to keep quality people employed rather than leaving to be contractors? Keeping some dead weight employed at the bottom protected by a bargaining agreement is worse than the dead weight at the top that got there by being the nephew of the boss? Who will then hire his nephew and create dead weight to the bottom of the stack. Of course unions have to report regularly on LM-2 (LM-3, etc) every time they blow their nose to be in compliance with the LMRDA so every bit of corruption leads people to believe unions are totally corrupt. Corruption in the private sector isn't found until an entire industry collapses prompting thorough investigation and after the SCOTUS ruling regarding the honest-services law just made, prosecuting private sector corruption probably becomes more difficult.

Several times we have had police show up at our building saying someone in the building dialed 911 and have to do a full scan of the building before leaving because someone set a notebook on their phone or somehow had the 9 button jammed down. Our company issued Nokia's for some reason were set so that if you hold down 9 it dials 911.

One of them hopefully knows something about web design and can do better than this

I realize it's time to move on, but I'm still happily running several prosumer audio cards that will probably see their end with my next hardware cycle. Gina, Layla, Darla... farewell. -- Using "Fail" as a one-word rejection of something is unoriginal and idiotic. Real douchebags add "Epic" to it.

Epic Fail D00d.

I have XBMC running on an Acer Aspire Revo nettop as well as on an original Xbox with a Windows MCE remote. The interface looks pretty and the hardware has HDMI output. I've got the HD cables for my Xbox though and we use the Xbox more often because it does everything I need it to without extra complications. Sure, I could use a different remote and change somethings to simplify it. The Xbox though appears to load XBMC more quickly although I've never actually timed it. It is also really nice to be able to play the old Xbox games and things through an emulator occasionally. My nettop will soon be repurposed as I am content with my Xbox XBMC and have no need for all the fancy new features other than keeping the Google Video and other plugins updated to work.