Comment Google Steam Punk Glass (Score 1) 141
If Google really wants to succeed with the technorati, they need to come out with monocle, pince-nez and quizzing glasses models. Plus protective goggles for the lumberdandies.
Submission + - Obama To Unveil Plan To Bring About Faster Internet Access (washingtonpost.com)
An anonymous reader writes: President Obama is rolling out a new plan to boost the speed of internet connections throughout the U.S. For one, he'll be asking the FCC for assistance in neutralizing state laws (PDF) that prevent cities from building municipal broadband services. These laws restrict competition and give the major ISPs no incentive to invest and innovate. Obama will also be directing other federal agencies to increase the amount of money they grant and loan to ISP-related projects. "Any effort by the FCC to preempt anti-muni-broadband laws will likely focus on a controversial part of the FCC's congressional charter known as "Section 706." That part of the law recognizes the FCC's authority to stimulate broadband deployment, which supporters of preemption argue the tactic would promote. If Section 706 sounds familiar, that's because it's also the legal tool some say should be used to promote net neutrality, or the principle that broadband companies shouldn't speed up or slow down some Web sites over others."
Comment Daddy, where do trees come from? (Score 1) 174
Uhhh, well....
Comment Re:You are making things WAY TOO COMPLEX (Score 1) 182
Nope, at least not with any Paypal labels I've printed.
I've shipped countless packages a day late BTW, and never, ever had one returned.
In the eBay shipping center, next to the selector for Shipping Date is a link to More Info that states:
Mailing Date
The Mailing Date you select determines the date when your postage label is valid. An electronic record is generated on that date indicating that your package has been mailed. When creating an online label, you are responsible for providing accurate information when selecting the mailing date. You will have the option to select a mailing date up to 3 days in the future. Please note that the Mailing Date is formatted in Eastern Standard Time.
This is corroborated by the USPS notice posted earlier, though from your experience the notice should say "may be returned" rather than "will be returned." You are being given a grace period by the post office that accepts your package; others report their packages being returned, so late mailing is not something that can be counted upon systemwide.
Comment But can it hold its liquor? (Score 1) 340
I bet a couple of shots of redeye would lower its winning percentage.
Comment Re:You are making things WAY TOO COMPLEX (Score 1) 182
I've printed the shipping label the night before countless times.
Printing date and shipping date are not necessarily the same thing. If you've printed a shipping label "the night before," after business hours in the ship-from zip code, the default shipping date was likely set to the next day. Packages can be (and in some cases are) returned when shipped after the shipping date; it's your chance to take.
Comment Re:You are making things WAY TOO COMPLEX (Score 2) 182
You seem to veer off the rails all over the place, but the main thing that mystified me is - why would a label NOT WORK the next day (a "confusion" you list more than once)? It's insane to think it would not.
From the USPS Report on PRC Rate and Service Inquiries for December 2011:
You must mail your item on the date that you selected for your Click-N-Ship label; this is known as the Ship Date. An electronic record is generated on that date indicating that your mailpiece has been mailed. Packages shipped with labels that have incorrect Ship Dates may be returned to the sender and will not be eligible for a refund. If you are unable to use the label, you should request a refund within ten (10) days of the printing date and create another label with the correct Ship Date.
That said, local postal offices apparently offer varying amounts of flexibility; but the policy is that you must ship on the Ship Date or cancel within ten days to get a refund. See also here.
Four Facepalm Bugs In USPS Label-Printing Site 182
"The United States Postal Service "Click-N-Ship" site suffered no outages or slowdowns during Christmas rush," writes Bennett Haselton. "It just has bugs that make the process more annoying than just standing in line
at the post office, which defeats the purpose. The most frustrating part is that most
of these bugs could have been fixed, just by having some testers run through the
ordering process and make a note of anything that seems confusing or wrong. (Although I've included notes on how to work around all the bugs, so you really can print your own labels and skip the line.)" Read on for the rest; what other gripes do you have about the current package delivery regime, and how would you resolve them?
Submission + - John Yoo Thinks That Supreme Court Justices Are Superannuated (intelligencesquaredus.org)
ZipK writes: In an Intelligence Squared debate this past October, John Yoo, best known for his authorship of the "Torture Memos," weighs in on the legality of the mass collection of U.S. phone records, and provides his view on the workings of the Constitution:
"But suppose you disagree with the Supreme Court, what should you do? Maybe I, as a policy matter, would draw the line between security and privacy somewhere else. We should decide it the way we decide most of the questions in our society: we have elections. This is not a question, as a democracy, that I think we should leave up to five — no offense to the retired people in the audience — superannuated, elderly people on the Supreme Court probably don't know how a cell phone or smart phone really works I'm sure have no Facebook or Twitter accounts to let you know about their latest opinions. And so if you really want to change the law here, and change what the government does, elect different people to Congress. Elect Rand Paul to President, have them put into affect the policies you want. That's how our constitution is designed to work."
Apparently Mr. Yoo does not believe the Supreme Court should be asked to review appellate decisions, and that the justices themselves are too old to understand a case that involves technology. For the record, Justice Breyer is on both Facebook and Twitter, though, as you'd expect of a U.S. Supreme Court justice, he doesn't use social media to communicate publicly about his cases.
"But suppose you disagree with the Supreme Court, what should you do? Maybe I, as a policy matter, would draw the line between security and privacy somewhere else. We should decide it the way we decide most of the questions in our society: we have elections. This is not a question, as a democracy, that I think we should leave up to five — no offense to the retired people in the audience — superannuated, elderly people on the Supreme Court probably don't know how a cell phone or smart phone really works I'm sure have no Facebook or Twitter accounts to let you know about their latest opinions. And so if you really want to change the law here, and change what the government does, elect different people to Congress. Elect Rand Paul to President, have them put into affect the policies you want. That's how our constitution is designed to work."
Apparently Mr. Yoo does not believe the Supreme Court should be asked to review appellate decisions, and that the justices themselves are too old to understand a case that involves technology. For the record, Justice Breyer is on both Facebook and Twitter, though, as you'd expect of a U.S. Supreme Court justice, he doesn't use social media to communicate publicly about his cases.
Comment Re:Seriously? GOOD NEWS? (Score 1) 255
if internet access is under government control on government poles
How are you getting internet access today without it flowing through trenches dug in government controlled streets, on wires strung along government controlled poles or through frequencies cast on government controlled radio spectrum?
Comment Re:Countless Comments on Prior Articles & Now (Score 5, Funny) 219
Let's rephrase the question: what exactly would the US Government have to release to you in order to believe it was the DPRK that committed this hack?
Unedited video of Apollo 11 going to the moon where Neil Armstrong found a second gunman guarding Obama's birth certificate.
Comment Re:Someone please aware me: (Score 1) 303
Privacy gets no respect in the crowd, never did
Crowds and public spaces are not synonymous.
Comment Re:Someone please aware me: (Score 1) 303
If you are walking and talking down the sidewalk in town other people are able to hear your side of the conversation.
So if I'm talking quietly, cupping my hand over the mouthpiece and/or making sure that I'm not close enough to others to bother them with my conversation, the stingray will magically leave me alone?
Comment Dress Code (Score 3, Interesting) 223
Will they also let the "ponytail wearing Google generation" wear their ponytails? How about their bespoke frontiersman beards?
Comment ABC (Anyone But Comcast) (Score 2) 65
We live with DSL speed from a local ISP rather than deal with Comcast or AT&T. We'd be plenty happy to see a gigabit service from another provider!
