BASIC is where it's at, you insensitive clod!

Totally off topic, but I ended up getting drunk with a bunch of people that are here in town for SC13 last night. Those boys can drink. But I'm surprised that there wasn't more talk about Tianhe-2 there, and how Chinese is going to kick the US off the top 25 in international supercomputing.

What worries me the most is that it is quite possible that a black ops unit exists, operating within the US, and targets US citizens solely for interrogation and assassination (similar to B613 in the TV show Scandal). I guess that doesn't worry me the most - what worries me the most about that would be the fact that it would most likely be a completely autonomous organization with no oversight by the military or elected civilian leadership.

Lucky you, but I have :P

I don't know... I'm torn. It's a toss-up between the Tal Shiar, Obsidian Order and Section 31. Although, for anyone that's watched Scandal the TV show, Section 31 sounds a lot like the B613 black ops group... so maybe not Section 31.

Probably because most STBs are complicated as all hell and with each software update manage to mess things up on HD channels. Plus, HD channels experience a little lag when channel flipping that SD channels don't experience (usually).

I will miss being able to walk around a movie store and just see what's available - from new releases, to classics, to random indie or foreign films. Sure, I can probably find most of that on Netflix and their recommendation system isn't too shabby, but it doesn't replace that experience of walking around and talking to other movie watchers in person.

There are other problems, sure, but this was easily fixed :P Truth be told, the owner didn't (doesn't) care about the restaurant as long as it doesn't lose her a lot of money. She mostly is across the country catering on-scene locations.

Um, I worked for a Fortune 200 (telecommunications industry) and my team alone would generate over 5 petabytes of data every month and a half, give or take a few weeks. Mind you, my 'team' consisted of several hundred people, but we were a huge organization with over 40,000 direct workers and 39,000 contract workers. This type of organization is what this plan is aimed for....

The $250k limit is a pa limit. It's actually $21k a month, and any transaction after that goes to 2.75%. Same for any transaction over $400. Running a drink place (coffee shop, etc) - sure, costs are a lot lower. But to that Chinese take out, or the small hole in the wall breakfast joint that is only open from 7am-2:30pm yet manages to employ 13 people... that's a huge blow to the owner who doesn't get much profit (if any) out of the business to begin with. In my small example, switching to Square and using monthly pricing started giving her (the owner) a profit of around $400 a month which she put aside each month to try and expand so she could hire more people.

Actually, any single transaction over $400 was processed at 2.75%. All transactions over a monthly limit of $21,000 was processed at 2.75%, which equals a p.a. amount of around $250,000 a year. So this is essentially a huge blow to the small businesses (restaurants, food carts/trucks, pedicabs, etc etc). And they're selling it as a way for businesses to save money, by keeping the same 2.75% they've always charged per swipe. Oh, and the restaurant I managed (a small hole-in-the-wall) switched to Square's monthly plan because it saved us around $500 a month in processing fees vs phone or broadband based machines. Now I'm going to have to go back to that restaurant, I guess, and help them find a new solution - restaurants are low margin and our owner barely makes a hundred bucks a month of the restaurant, after paying food costs, rent and employing 11 people.

Damn straight!

I bike you insensitive clod!