Google HQ is in California, so they started there. They've expanded to include Nevada, Michigan and Florida, so far.

You do realize that unless you're driving a 1950 era automobile, you're already putting your life into the hands of programmers

What do you think happens when you step on the gas pedal? Do you think it's still physically pulling some cable that opens flapper valves, allowing more fuel to flow into a carburetor? Nope. It's all electronic now. You stepping on the gas sends a single to a computer "He's pushing for 25% throttle" which was designed by programmers to actuate your fuel injection at the proper flow rate.

What about that transmission? Unless you drive manual, you're not actually moving gears around with that lever. You're sending a signal to a computer "Put it in drive" which was also designed by a programmer.

Brakes still have a physical connection, for now, but that's only as a backup. The vast majority of your breaking is done digitally, just like the throttle

But how does the car know you bought the Music CD?

Maybe I bought it, and let you rip/save it on your car. And then passed it around to a dozen other friends who did the same with their GMs and Fords.

(not that I think AARC have a leg to stand on, really. Just playing Devil's Advocate)

Hadn't thought of that, though it would be difficult as the Cox bill changes slightly each month.

The main charges are the same, but they always seem to find a few new service charges or taxes or some other way to adjust the final price (usually up) each month.

Your score is what determines loan rates.

Paying the nominal interest fees on a few bucks a month will help secure a lower interest rate on a house or car purchase. Knocking off just 1% (or even half a percent) from a home loan is worth a TON of money in the long run.

Hopefully truth. I've heard the same lines, so I've done basically the same thing.

Most of my monthly recurring bills (utilities, mobile phone, insurance, etc) go onto a CC, and I pay off the majority of it each month, but never quite pay it all off.

I've not been at it long enough to see any real effect, but here's to hoping.

How it's supposed to work (conceptually) is that making steady payments on debt indicates that you are responsible. You make your monthly payments for your car, house, credit cards, medical procedures, etc. all on time and in full, so the bank trusts you with another payment. If you just pay for everything in straight-up cash money, the banks have no idea if you can keep a schedule reliably. You seemingly work on whims instead of tight schedules and repeated patterns. And of course, the more debt you can balance, the less flighty you seem, so the more trustworthy you seem.

In reality, however, banks know that the more debt you have, the more likely you are to only make minimum payments, which means more interest for them. If you buy things straight-up cash, banks don't get their cut. In fact, they probably paid YOU a little bit while you had that money in their vaults (not nearly as much as you'd pay them to borrow the same amount, of course, but still...) and that's just bad business.

It's really just a modern day protection racket. You give the banks a little cut of your money every month (interest) and they'll let you borrow some big cash when you want to buy a house or car. Of course you'll have to increase that monthly protection money, in addition to paying back all the money they let you borrow.

Same thing happened to me with my ISP, Cox. The bank has no record of any canceled, refused, returned, failed, or otherwise erroneous attempted payments. As best I can tell, Cox just decided to stop my automatic monthly payments for no adequate reason.

Luckily (luckily?) they just cut off my service before it went to collections. I called them up and payed the bill, but now face a different problem. They've blocked auto-payments by credit card, to include the automated phone system. I have to either mail out a physical check, or call them up every month, wait on hold for an hour or so, and fight with the phone rep to not charge the $10 service fee for speaking with a phone rep. Once they've canceled the bonus charge, I can just say, "Pay with the card on file" and that's fine. Till next month, when we do the dance all over again

Gotta love a monopoly.

Similar. Just a week ago I received notice from a collection agency that claims I owe $100 to a Car Insurance company.

I'm not a customer that company, and haven't been a customer of theirs in nearly a decade, and this is the first I've heard of it. So you can likely count me amongst the 35%. My attempts to clear up the confusion have been equally fruitless. Just a lot of "I don't know why you're just now finding out. I can't remove the debt. You'd better just pay it."

You're definitely not alone. There are entire threads on the exact definition of "streaming" as it pertains to this poll... which is really what makes polls such a terrible source for actual evidence. Even though we're reading the same words, everyone is answering a different question.

umm... yes

Sure, you're not going to get those speeds through most ISPs, but ISPs don't need to be a part of the streaming equation. I stream within my own house, from the NAS box in the back room to the HTPC in the living room, or to the Roku in the bedroom.

I see your point, but I can't equate a change of font or layout with lying about compatibility on a dating site.

Especially without any kind of warning to the users in question. Double especially when it's a potentially-paid service (a quuick google search says they OKCupid has both free and paid options... though I've never used the site myself)

On the flip side, if people knew that such shenanigans were afoot, we probably wouldn't get any decent results. Still, it seems like there should at least be a "we are altering our algorithms regularly to try and optimize the compatibility... blah blah blah" stated fairly clearly when you sign up.

Those last two are actually contradictory.

The more "everywhere" this tech gets, the less unobtrusive it becomes (or rather, the more obtrusive)

There also need to be rules for overturned requests.

If Company A issues a takedown request against something on my website, and I successfully appeal the claim, that needs to be a strike against Company A.

Three strikes and Company A is barred from making DMCA requests (either permanently or for some set timeframe). This would instantly stop these companies from issuing mass auto-generated takedown requests.