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Comment: It is like getting customer service... (Score 1) 375

by MerlynEmrys67 (#39055491) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Tech Manufacturers With Better Labor Practices?
on an airline.
As a country we aren't willing to pay extra for good service on an airline - it is all about who has the lowest fair on expedia/priceline/... not which brand has good customer service. As a country we are not willing to pay for extras like good customer service, quality, or good business practices. Anyone old enough when the big selling point of walmart was "Made in America"? It was great - walmart was great - jobs were great... Then it was time to lower prices - either by breaking the labor force in the USA or shipping manufacturing somewhere "cheaper". Now walmart requires suppliers to have a plan to manage their manufacturing in China... No more Made in the USA there.
It is a shame isn't it.

Comment: I call shenanegans (Score 1) 130

by MerlynEmrys67 (#37062750) Attached to: Human Brain Is Sensitive To Light In Ears
So a bright light is expected to travel down the ear canal - cross the several membranes between the ear and the brain and have a measurable effect on your brain (even assuming that the photoreceptors ARE there). I'm buying it just as much as the Browser IQ article from earlier.
I want to see some peer review first

Comment: Re:A linear induction motor is not a railgun. (Score 1) 314

by MerlynEmrys67 (#34654026) Attached to: Navy Uses Railgun To Launch Fighter Jet
I am assuming that they use stored electricity... But not all that power will be provided by the catapult. There are engines on the plane that produce thrust as well running at full throttle. I would assume that they can provide some of that 153 MW of work during the launch.

Comment: Re:"Obamacare" (Score 1) 1530

by MerlynEmrys67 (#34145250) Attached to: 2010 Election Results Are In

How about the individual mandate? In a free society such as ours, it is a violation of liberty for the government to require an individual to purchase something from a private company as a cost of living.

I don't understand people arguing this point. Aren't we already required to own car/motorcycle insurance? And given that public transportation is laughable or nonexistent outside of cities, couldn't owning a vehicle be considered a cost of living?

You are not required to own automobile insurance in any state that I am aware of. People are capable of walking, biking, taking a bus, hiring a taxi for that matter, my young daughter has no need for car insurance for another 4-5 years. If you decide it is more convenient to buy a car, pay for insurance and gas - that is great, your free choice.

Comment: Re:"Obamacare" (Score 2, Insightful) 1530

by MerlynEmrys67 (#34113580) Attached to: 2010 Election Results Are In
Very true. Hard to know what not to love in a 1500 page bill that is a bunch of densely written diffs to the current laws. I would much prefer to read the thousands of pages of what the law actually says with the diffs applied.
Now on to answer your questions:
What not to love, The requirement to give 1099 forms to any business a company does 600 dollars worth of business with in a year. Imagine you are an independent truck owner - you drive around the country delivering goods. You fill up on diesel at various stops along the way buying 2-300 dollars worth of diesel at a stop. You are responsible for figuring out which companies (realize the gas stations are usually private small companies owned by local franchises) you bought 600 dollars worth of gas from, what their business location is (No - it isn't cheveron, and probably isn't on the receipt) and delivering the documents to them annually. How much will this paperwork cost you, what happens when you make a mistake (really, did you know that some guy owns a gas station in florida and north dakota for some unknown reason?) - what does this have to do with the delivery of health care anyway?

What not to love, The requirement to pay for a product merely for being alive in the country. As an older American, insurance is a great deal - I will spend more than 10-15K in healthcare costs a year. As a young single male, well - lets just say if I see a doctor this year, it is unusual, I am wasting all of my premium. I am forced to pay for this just for being alive in the country now

What not to love, All of the mandates on what coverage has to include. Let me guess, you add required services to a bid, you expect the price to go up. Seems normal to me

What not to love, All of the wheeling and dealing that went into getting all 60 democrats in the senate to vote yes, if you want "good" insurance that covers a lot of things, so it costs 10K a year - you have to pay extra (unless you are in a union). If you happen to live in a few states with smart senators that hold out, your state gets a break by not having to implement things that are required of the rest of the country (so we are all paying for Nebraska now - wish I lived there, or better wish my senator wasn't such a tow the party line guy that they didn't have to pay him off to get a yes vote out of him)

I could go on for a while... next time someone wants to vote on a 1500 page bill, lets give people enough time to read 1500 pages (3-4 days? I mean it would be your full time job) so we can actually know what is in the bill before it is voted on.

Comment: Re:Not bad but.. (Score 4, Informative) 206

by MerlynEmrys67 (#34064406) Attached to: Hiding Backdoors In Hardware
Ok - time for a few corrections
1) First Intel (after initially responding poorly to the bug) fully recalled the product without question. If you had a processor in question, you could ask for and recieve a replacement. Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_FDIV_bug
2) The flaw was caused by a bad division lookup table, not the mathematical nuance of binary logic gates. What I think you are trying to describe is the fact that floating point numbers are not percise, and you never compare them directly, only compare if they are within a small delta of each other.

Comment: Re:HOW much of a golden parachute? (Score 0) 136

by MerlynEmrys67 (#33243608) Attached to: HP Board Sued Over Hurd Departure
40 Million payout. 1/100th of that payout is 400K.

Frankly, I have about 1/2 of that in accounts now at 40. I plan on having about 1/20th of that by the time I retire in 25 years. That said - the guy was fired for cause - why are you paying him off with a golden parachute. If I wrote a fraudulent expense report for a few hundred dollars, I expect I would be fired and the police knocking on my door asking some questions about my behavior.

Social Networks

"David After Dentist" Made $150k For Family 234

Posted by samzenpus
from the is-this-real-life? dept.
It turns out recording your drugged child pays pretty well. 7-year-old David DeVore became an overnight sensation when his father posted a video of his ramblings after dental surgery. To date that video has made the DeVore family around $150,000. Most of the money came from YouTube, but the family has made $50k from licensing and merchandise. From the article: "The one seemingly minor decision to make the video available all over the Internet set off a whirlwind of changes for the DeVore family. Within just four days, 'David After Dentist' received 3 million views on YouTube and the younger David quickly became an Internet celebrity. His father quit his job in residential real estate (did we mention they live in Florida?), and the family started selling T-shirts featuring cartoon drawings of their son post-dental surgery."

A penny saved is ridiculous.

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