> as a foreigner (even non native)

Is there any other kind?

Reminds me of:

- Santiago was in danger.
+ you mean, in grave danger?
- is there any other kind?

and Bruce is a regular poster here. He's probably reading this now.

It would not surprise me if these individuals are Cuban.

That area of New Jersey, the Union City, NJ, and the West New York, NJ zone are home to the second largest community of Cubans-(Americans) in the USA. Second only in numbers to Miami, FL. Union City. Senator Robert "Bob" Menendez, Cuban-American, is from Union City.

Being Cuban is no sin, but I do get the feeling that some of these pendejos think they are still back in Cuba by their actions.

This must have been in the 1990s, that's when Abrahan & Straus*, A&S don't you know, got caught hiring unethical bill collectors willing to illegally go after debt-free post-bankruptcy individuals. Eventually this story broke nationally in the news, and A&S was prosecuted either criminally or civilly in the US courts. It went bad for them, as it should, as the bankruptcy law process washes away the old so as to start anew. A&S suffered very bad publicity for their lack of intelligence.

Anyway, I knew someone who owed A&S/Stern's, went successfully through bankruptcy, whom months later received a hesitant, soft spoken, hemming-hawing telephone call that caused this cleared debtor to say: Are you trying to say you're a bill collector for A&S?

This person thought (pre-news story, btw) the caller was either a scammer or a retardate, thus he gave him his bankruptcy lawyer's phone number so as to have his concern addressed. Weeks later a different, nastier collector calls, and threatens and blusters and says he'll sue: Go ahead, said the collectee, there is no debt, send me the proof as the law requires! he says finally. More greater bigger bluster comes his way.

So collectee says, OK give me your name, your company name and your phone number where you can be reached during business hours. Collectee calls his bankruptcy lawyer and says to the receptionist he knows well, ``wazzup, why didn't you handle these idiots.'' She says, I did, in fact hold on, I'll conference you in whilst I call this second guy, you listen silently on the line. He did.

She spoke with 2nd dude, nastier dude, explained how they should already know this is post-bankruptcy expunged, but anyhow here's the bankruptcy certificate, via fax, again, that idiot number one had already received weeks earlier as a courtesy. Nasty dude complained that collectee was mean, unreasonable, and yelled at him.

This is priceless, she said, yes, he did, he was angry, as I had already talked, faxed, and dealt with this with his colleague weeks ago, and how they were violating the law. To that he said farewell and was never heard from again. A year later the news broke on what A&S/Stern's was illegally collecting null debt via threats and harassment.

Long way of saying, if this ever happens to you, contact your State Attorney General (to fuck them over), your bankruptcy lawyer (to clear your mind), and for deserving riches hire a vicious, civil attorney to sue the collector and their original client for un mucho dinero settlement or for grande winning verdict damages!

* aka Stern's

Man! You're a badass in a teacup, in your hypothetical state. Come to NYC, here you can't own a gun without submitting to police supplication, to a police inquisition, to a police in vivo interrogation, to a police life-excavation, to a police fee application of several hundred dollars, to a police mandated ~1 year anticipation on whether a non-concealed gun permit assignation will be your reward for being so patient. Fuck them!

> a mainstream association with the "natural" to mean
> "safe". There are lots of naturally occurring dangerous
> substances.

^.^ Reminds me of a PBS pledge week (are they weeklong, anymore? they go on forever now!) program on health issues I saw circa ten years ago.

PBS health-dude sweetly chiding a lady whom's taking things ad absurdum: ``So she says, `but how can it be bad, bad for my health, bad for my weight, bad for my glucose levels, cause diabetes, etc.? It's just honey, the little bees make it. It's wholesome, it's natural, it's organic.' So I said, madam, gonorrhea is natural too.''

-snip lots of words-

UBL will never walk this earth again. The world will take notice of that. Fin.

> you have to be an expert to properly use a
> consumer-grade service, the real problem lies
> squarely with the service

For reals! That's your thought process? What is this 1995?

Who the fuck's Mimaw doesn't yet know to use at least an eight alphanum non dictionary password? We're in decade three of mass Net adoption, heretofore said users are lusers, it can be safely said. Senior centers have been teaching this point no less often than `look both ways when using your walker to cross the street.' To imply any less is to impugn the intelligence of the grey set.

Furthermore, last I tried, long ago, Google would not let me use anything less then eight (8) characters for a passwd. Hotmail allowing 7 characters for a passwd does qualify for a fail. A dumbass, basic fail. Why are the great thinkers on the dot not mentioning that fact, that's the puzzlement that is my amusement.

> Who modded this informative?

Indeed!

> All of their core products are completely closed source

To peons like you and I: yes.

> They are about as open source as Microsoft.

Funny. You must be new around here. The bigs will share their secret sauce with clients---if they are BIG enough. MS has shared Windows code with China---going back years, check the /. archives---e.g., to ease Chinese fears there are no back doors for the USA to spy on them. Ironical, I know. *G*

> [FF] will update silently â" just like Chrome.

How do you turn this off?

Is there a dialog off?

An about:config switch?

There are lotsa users still on dial-up for which this is painful.