What are you doing for May Day?
Displaying poll results.20657 total votes.
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- By the end of 2026, how useful do you think agentic/multi-agent AI systems will actually be in your daily work or personal projects? Posted on March 11th, 2026 | 12976 votes
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- By the end of 2026, how useful do you think agentic/multi-agent AI systems will actually be in your daily work or personal projects? Posted on March 11th, 2026 | 40 comments
I voted Working tech support at AOL .. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I voted Working tech support at AOL .. (Score:5, Interesting)
You would be amazed at how many jobs wont consider over-qualified people. Even if they're temp positions (3-6 months). I moved up to Portland, and didn't know anybody up here... an effort to re-invent myself or some bullshit along those lines. Took me 2 months to find a job, because all jobs that were open were entry level positions, that wouldn't consider me. I kept telling them, "I just want to work until I find something that suits me better." I kept getting, "Well, we would rather have someone not as experienced as you, even if the position is only a 2 month contract."
Congrats on your degree, and best of luck to you.
Re:I voted Working tech support at AOL .. (Score:2)
So true! My sister has two degrees from a major university and she can't even get a job at local restaurants. They all say she is over qualified. I don't understand the whole situation, what exactly does being over qualified have to do with anything? The person is willing to work for wages that you are offering, and has qualifications that indicate they can do a good job. Yet, the employer denies them employment because they have too many qualifications indicating that they will do too good of a job... Wha
Re:I voted Working tech support at AOL .. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I voted Working tech support at AOL .. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I voted Working tech support at AOL .. (Score:2, Insightful)
You're missing a very simple aspect here, and that is the social aspect. I think that one of the issues with being over-qualified is that the kind of people you will be working and interacting with will be very under qualified compared to you. In business, the social environment is also important, especially how you relate to the other employees. If you make them all look bad, or can't adapt to the social atmosphere of the business, nobody is going to want to work with you. Therefore, why should they g
Re:I voted Working tech support at AOL .. (Score:5, Interesting)
The reason is turn-around. People who are over-qualified take those positions to survive while they are looking for a better paying job. People who are under-qualified value the job, and will be their longer.
Re:I voted Working tech support at AOL .. (Score:4, Funny)
don't leave me hanging, man!
Re:I voted Working tech support at AOL .. (Score:2, Insightful)
The idea a perfect match will stay forever is pretty naieve (sp?), if you ask me. Anyone worth hiring is eventually going to move on for any one of a million reasons that people just didn't give an
How I answered that question (Score:5, Informative)
Last Xmas I applied to take catalog sales calls, & was asked wy I was applying for a job I was over-qualified for. My answer was roughly as follows:
1. I've been looking for about 18 months for a job I was qualified for, & to that point had only one interview. At that point, being offered a job I was qualified for was the equivalent of winning the lottery -- & would he still be working if he won the lottery?
2. I needed the money. ($250 a week from unemployment wasn't paying all of the bills)
3. Lastly, I gave them the guarrantee that when I walked in the door on the first day, I would stay the entire season.
They hired me, & I treated the job like it was my career goal. (Yes, there were days I wasn't as devoted as others, but I came not only to work but do ``upsales", got involved in the promotions, & did my best to make the customer happy.) At the end, they were quite happy with my performance.
And it beat working at Stream in almost every catagory -- although I probably could have made a dollar more at that sweatshop.
Geoff
Re:I voted Working tech support at AOL .. (Score:2, Insightful)
would you kindly START YOUR OWN COMPANY and let some of us get a decent job?
Re:I voted Working tech support at AOL .. (Score:2, Insightful)
it sucks.
it has no other redeeming value besides further cultivating your own personal intense hatred of everybody.
You'd be better off getting a job with your local municipalities Depatrtment of Public Works. Then at least you'd get to be outside sometimes and you get the occational wet lunch with your co-workers so you can "stick it to the man."
It's downright fucking *noble*, i tell ya.
--
I didn't work tech support at AOL, but... (Score:5, Funny)
Well, at least they're honest....
May Day? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: As am I... so... (Score:3, Informative)
Don't you kids learn anything about the Canons of Western Civilization these days? I mean the Great Thinkers and Philosophers?
IN SOVIET RUSSIA... (Score:5, Funny)
We can only hope that Europe, Cuba, China, and the good cultists in North Korea get a clue before they suffer further from their economic self-inflicted wounds.
This rant has been brought to you by:
History: The Literate Person's Cluestick
Re:IN SOVIET RUSSIA... (Score:2)
In soviet US of A (or whatever) (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, and so is capitalism... It doesn't even exist (has it ever existed?) in its pure form - _every_ country has some kind of control over the economy as far as I know, and they usually have some socialist traits too (social security, public healthcare etc). Communism and socialism aren't perfect, and so isn't capitalism (free market democracy?). The perfect economic model is yet to be found.
As for communism - I've read somewhere that economists say that communism would be a lot better solution for some African countries than the current "democracy" and capitalism...
Re:In soviet US of A (or whatever) (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:In soviet US of A (or whatever) (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In soviet US of A (or whatever) (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/mao
Re:In soviet US of A (or whatever) (Score:3, Insightful)
Indirectly millions.
US foreign policy is based on the same nationalism and socialism that the rest of the world suffers from.
Thousands have starved, died, been the victims of crime, etc. due to socialistic American domestic policies.
Re:In soviet US of A (or whatever) (Score:4, Insightful)
You live under the misconception that if you let them starve, it would be their fault as opposed to killing them out being your own. The government is responsible for it's people like parents to children. If parents let their children starve, you'ld be just as upset, if not more than, if they gunned their child down. At least the latter is less painful.
What if the government just let half their population die out because a greedy company only sold a vaccine for a plague to the wealthy?
It's not a matter of conservative versus liberal. It's a matter of humanity. Capitalism isn't very humane. Capitalism is all about distributing resources to those already with resources. Some forms of communism have been pretty good, though absolute of either capitalism or communism are both ruthless.
If everyone has equal power, those with ideas will be squelched out from the noise of the mass idiots.
If not everyone has an equal opportunity (not present in the US as it is now because you are born with or without resources. Intelligence is not genetic.) then those with good ideas won't have a chance to implement them (this happens every day in the US).
Neither are good. It's kind of like opening up the country to direct democracy. The mass idiots would destroy everything. On the other end of the spectrum, you have dictatorships, which can be good, but you are depending on the dictator being benevolent.
Finding just the right spot between the two opposing forces to achieve a balanced society is the job of government. In some cases, the balance would be closer to communism (like those countries in Africa) than most. In others, a closer tendancy to capitalism would be better.
This is true in all sorts of respects. Not that anyone should be "moderate." It's not a moderate stance to choose the appropriate point between two other ideas.
Obviously there are a lot of factors that push and pull the ideal point of convergence. If we had the technology of Star Trek, then I'm sure a communistic society would be much more fit than a capitalistic society. Scarcity is the only force that warrents capitalism, but it is a real force. File sharing and open source software are examples of communistic principals taking hold in various trades where scarcity is more of an illusion than a hard fact of life.
Don't rule out communism as always being ruthless or inferior to capitalism. Some day, or in certain circumstances, communism can be better than capitalism.
Re:In soviet US of A (or whatever) (Score:3, Funny)
People who are too stupid or lazy to figure out how to get food deserve to starve. Why should productive citizens have their hard earned money taxed to support those loser?
What if the government just let half their population die out because a greedy company only sold a vaccine for a plague to the wealthy?
Then the government should be lauded for protecting the intellect
Re:In soviet US of A (or whatever) (Score:5, Insightful)
I have absolutely no concern whatsoever about the economic model I live under. Freedom is all I care about, and that has no price. The idea that Capitalism == United States "way of life" is Cold War propaganda. My vision of the American way of life is a society in which the first two amendments (among many others) function as written, and where Hillary Rosen, Bill Gates, Dick Gephardt, Pat Roberts, and John Ashcroft don't try to run my fscking life.
Re:In soviet US of A (or whatever) (Score:3, Insightful)
Could you explain to me what you think capitalism's "pure form" is? I get the feeling you (and some of the moderators, obviously) think "pure capitalism" is a stateless anarchy.
Where the means of production and distribution are in private hands, that is "pure" capitalism.
S
Re:In soviet US of A (or whatever) (Score:3, Funny)
No, Anarchists untie.
Re:IN SOVIET RUSSIA... (Score:5, Insightful)
Europe's economy is still recovering from World War II, when America was left as the only country with standing factories, thus leading to it's dominance.
Cuba might do better if we lifted the embargo. They are a small country, and like Vietnam, communism has worked well. Sure there is poverty, but have you seen the ghettos of America? Noone is immune. One could say at least all their children have health care, despite their general lack of technology.
China is actually doing great, because they've turned into a perfect capitalist haven. Our current economic downfall is in part of their smart(and cruel, but profitable) moves. No labor or environmental laws to get in the way, thus proving that capitalism and freedom aren't correlated.
North Korea also has been embargoed, and their downfall is more related to psychopathic leaders who prefer isolation than any economic philosophy.
You see, capitalism consists of winners and losers. So the more free-form it gets, the more poor countries there are, which then sometimes turn to socialism and communism to attempt to alleve their poverty.
What makes America great are the socialist policies that insure that money is always fueled back into the lower levels of the system independant of the current economic situation, which allows consumerism to thrive even in difficult times.
This is why organizations like the UN are important, because what happens in country A affects country B, and sometimes country B can't survive and remain stable without global help, whether it's aid, or demands that country A stop certain actions.
I suggest trying to understand others, instead of stopping at deciding they're wrong.
This counter-rant has been brought to you by:
Objective thinking
Re:IN SOVIET RUSSIA... (Score:5, Informative)
> They are a small country, and like Vietnam,
> communism has worked well. Sure there is poverty,
> but have you seen the ghettos of America? Noone is
> immune. One could say at least all their children
> have health care, despite their general lack of
> technology.
True, Cuba has a 98% literacy rate, free health care, free housing, etc.
Its just too bad that Cuba is an oppressive dictatorship that crushes dissent and forbids the people to speak their minds, worship as they choose, gather together, or petition their government for redress of their grievances.
If only it weren't for their complete and total disregard, and sometimes their active denial, or their citizen's inalienable human rights, psuedo-communist dictatorships would be just great!
Re:IN SOVIET RUSSIA... (Score:3, Interesting)
Europe's economy is still recovering from World War II, when America was left as the only country with standing factories, thus leading to it's dominance.
That just wrong. Yes the US's dominance is partly due to the fact that we had a headstart in '45, but what about Japan and Germany? We bombed them back to the stone age! Yet they'r
Re:IN SOVIET RUSSIA... (Score:2)
In your opinion of course, since you prefer a world where there are a lot of downtrodden poor people, and a few rich doing the treading.
Re:IN SOVIET RUSSIA... (Score:3, Insightful)
This is the reason I have a problem with a lot of the social programs going on in the US right now. Welfare for example. It is a very useful th
Re:IN SOVIET RUSSIA... (Score:5, Funny)
Sorry.
Re:IN SOVIET RUSSIA... (Score:3, Insightful)
Before the Cuban revolution, (during the heavily US backed and preferred regime of Batista), medical treatment was for the rich. As was reading, it seems, since most of the population was illiterate. Right now, Cuba has one of the best medical systems in the world with more doctors per capita than any other nation as well as more volunteers in other countries than any other nation. Their literacy and educational system is one that now c
Ever tried getting medical treatment in Cuba? (Score:3, Insightful)
A lot of their good life expectancy can probably be attributed to the fact that they're too poor to afford cars, or smoke their own cigars. If you take out all the traffic deaths and lu
Re:IN SOVIET RUSSIA... (Score:3, Interesting)
I can't speak to a Jewish Yeshiva, but Catholic shools worked largely because they depended on underpaid religious orders to teach - folks who voluntarily took vows of poverty and hence required little income. In a true capitalist schooling system, the teachers would be paid market
Re:IN SOVIET RUSSIA... (Score:3, Insightful)
It's so much better to be unemployed without health insurance in a crime-ridden city.
What about... (Score:5, Funny)
May day??? (Score:3, Interesting)
MISSING OPTION (Score:5, Funny)
Re:MISSING OPTION (Score:2, Funny)
Re:MISSING OPTION (Score:2)
well duh... (Score:5, Funny)
Missing option of course (Score:5, Funny)
Wearing a big furry hat and marching about in close proximity to armed truck mounted missiles... um... you insensitive clod!
/me takes a swig of vodka
Re:Missing option of course (Score:4, Interesting)
By the way, those big truck mounted missiles they showed off on parades were actually made of plywood :P
[*] On that day, the newly formed Red Army "gloriously" fled from their first battle
Working tech support... (Score:2, Interesting)
Hell, even the US has more stat holidays per year then we get up here in Canada.
Anyone know of a job opening for a Windows 2000/FreeBSD admin in Spain?
Waiting for Cinco de Mayo (Score:5, Funny)
China (Score:5, Funny)
About the First Option (Score:5, Interesting)
Beltane is a wonderfully sexual Sabbat and it was celebrated by the youngest by hopping into bed (much like Midsummer, but I digress).
So, yes, that first option is a good choice.
Re:About the First Option (Score:5, Funny)
Thanks for showing me there's so much more (a la getting drunk and hopping in the sack)
Re:About the First Option (Score:5, Funny)
Get drunk? Whoo hoo! I'm a Pagan and didn't know it!
Thanks for showing me there's so much more (a la getting drunk and hopping in the sack)
Oh, wait. No I'm not...
Re:About the First Option (Score:5, Funny)
I hope that's a fake email address next to your name, cause you're about to be hit with about four hundred thousand emails from desperate slashdot readers...
Fertility Rites (Score:5, Interesting)
Tradition 1) A man and woman (priest and priestess) are consecrated to invoke the roles of god and goddess, and they have sacred sex in those roles. A child born of that union is considered to be the child of the divine parents, not the mortal vessles. And the woman is sometimes still considered a virgin, at least for issues of marriage and property. (There's a lot of parallelism with xian mythology, but the pagan stuff is much, much older. Guess where the xians got theit stuff?) A Beltaine child will be born on Brigid/Candlemas/Groundhog's Day/February 2nd, another major holiday.
Tradition 2) Celebrants light a bane fire (bonfire) and keep vigil all night. Throughout the night, couples sneak off to have sex in the fields, thus consecrating the fields and ensuring a year of fertility.
Beats the hell out of an Easter egg hunt, doesn't it?
much older? (Score:3, Interesting)
As for Christians getting st
Re:About the First Option (Score:2, Funny)
Obligatory chant:
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The First of May!
Outdoor f**king starts today!
Re: Sabbat ? (Score:4, Informative)
Kind of like the word for the chief male "god" (small g) has the same indo-european root in a number of different languages. Some ancient concepts tend to have very similar words for describing them in multiple languages and cultures. Some of the similarities are still recognizable now even though we recognize differences in the concept.
On May Day... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:On May Day... (Score:4, Funny)
I'm Unemployed You Insensitive Clod (Score:2)
So I voted for crossing a picket line, which I'd be happy to do. Union fatcats.
Lack of options......... (Score:3, Funny)
enough said.
Awesome! (Score:5, Funny)
The best answer for this poll is:
Celebrating! (Score:2)
Now who here is buying me a new 'l33t' PC?
May Baskets (Score:2)
I'm cowboy neal... (Score:5, Funny)
and I'm looking for a new poll to inhabit.
Is it possible? (Score:4, Insightful)
Tangent: People ALWYAS have the option to quit a job if they don't like it. I know the rhetoric,
- I've got a wife, kids, habbit, etc. to feed.
- I'd be on the street if I couldn't make rent payments.
- I can't find a job doing what I like.
But We should be able to say I like my job more than being homeless. or I like my job more than not having food. I like my job more than if I was unemployed looking for the perfect job which doesn't exist.Earlier today, I was in an conversation about this very thing. It was sparked my May Day celebrations.
Anyway. lok at your job. If you hate it. say. "My job sucks so bad, that I'm considering homelessness." That would get a better reaction and may even be truer than saying. My job sucks.
Re:Is it possible? (Score:2, Insightful)
Celebrating Capitalism (Score:5, Insightful)
Capitalism may not be perfect, but I have yet to see anyone offer a credible alternative.
I have a job. I get paid well. I own shares in the company. It is a profitable company. We also have a profit-sharing plan that allows us to reward employees who aren't shareholders.
I didn't have "connections" to get into the "right" colleges, or assloads of money to get through it - shit, I was the first member of my family to even go to college. And yet, some 10 years on, I've got a job, a year's living expenses in the bank, and almost 10 years' worth of living expenses invested in stocks. And that's with the past three years of a bear market. I'm not some shit-hot financial genius; I know full well that I'm nothing special, and that what I've accomplished could be done by anyone.
So yeah. Tonight, for May Day, I'm going home, cracking open a bottle wine - the good stuff - and raising a toast to the economic and social system that (even in the limited form present in the United States) has made it possible for me to acquire a motherboard from Taiwan and a CPU from Malaysia that runs code written anywhere from Redmond to Finland.
Workers of the world, unite for global capitalism - you have nothing to lose but your poverty.
Re:Celebrating Capitalism (Score:4, Insightful)
1) You're white.
2) You're male.
3) Your family isn't poor.
4) You grew up in the suburbs.
5) You didn't have to move to a different city to get your first job, and likely got it solely because your boss knew your Dad.
6) You have no idea how many people you screwed over to get where you are.
Of course, having all these qualities doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to get rich.
Hard work, perseverence, the big stepping stone of answering "yes" to four or five of the above, and most importantly, a wheelbarrow full of luck meant that you got to where you are.
But hey, life is great when you're one of the 10% of the capitalists, isn't it?
Re:Celebrating Capitalism (Score:3, Interesting)
1) No, that's the problem (for most part) with the people who didn't make it. That's the point - most people in USA have 100% perfect chance to succeed (at least, in my modest definition of success - have a job, be able to pay for bread, butter and occasional jar of honey, and save up some money for kids' future eductaion). If you're willing to work hard - and sometimes do things you don't like - you will always have some job.
The only way to end up
Re:Celebrating Capitalism (Score:5, Interesting)
try comparing USSR government housing to US government subsidized housing
OK, I tried. I have been in the projects. And I lived in Russian *standard* housing. The projects had bigger apartments, and houses were for most part better quality when they were built (however, they were shittily maintained - hell, my curent building in a very good neighbourhood of NYC is shittily maintained).
Oh, and when was the last time a project house had no hot water for months at a time? Or 10 days out of a month had no cold water either? Both were quite ***normal*** in my house in USSR.
In the 1980s some government workers came over from the USSR and were shown the condition of the projects in Chicago. They said that if any of them had allowed such poor buildings to be constructed, they would have lost their jobs
Uhm.... let me complete your sentence... in 1980s some politically reliable bueraucrats from the Party hierarchy came over from the USSR, who knew that they would be out of a job if they DARED to not only say something bad about USSR but avoid saying how Motherland was better..(continue your story). See the difference? THEY WERE NOT LIKELY TO HAVE TOLD THE TRUTH even if they wanted to!!!! And they probably didn't want to, since they had their national pride.
The overall standard of living may have been higher here than there, but that's because it's an average
Did you read what I said carefully? AVERAGE standard there was in some ways lower than the POOR standard here.
In the USSR, everyone was pretty close to the average
Except for those few who lived like kings.
You just don't get it - in USSR, a few people lived well (VERY few) - let's call it level 10 life, most lived VERY low level life - let's call it level 3, and some lived VERY poor life - level 1 - but of course you never heard of them because of USSR propaganda. You should have seen level of life in the villages for example - not judge "average" quality of life there by residents of Moscow.
In USA, in contrast, very few people live high life (form 9 to 11), MANY people live good life (let's say level 7-8, MOST people live middle-class life (5-6), and some people in the city projects live very low life (1-3).
You can see that the average is NOT on USSR side from the rough data above
-DVK
Nursing a hangover (Score:2)
Clearly, I chose the latter, so I'm working eight hours, being thankful, and popping pain killers.
Missing option: (Score:4, Funny)
Cleaning The House! (Score:2)
Working Tech Support (Score:2)
Death to Sales!!!
Que viva la revolucion de Tech Support!!! Arrriba!
Polls (Score:2)
On a second idea, did the poll start to rotate or is it just me?
Mayday! (Score:2)
Laid off Yesterday (Score:2)
way to liberate me from my bonds.. no more siebel database, no more headset hair, no more being chained to a lucent phone.
Thank you May Day.
summer time on EI.. what more could a guy ask for.
Leaving work early.... (Score:2)
http://penguicon.sourceforge.net
Yippee!
Here In Oxford (Score:2, Interesting)
Crossing a picket line. (Score:2)
If I was still a child... (Score:2)
Re:If I was still a child... (Score:2)
Worst porn movie ever.
If you're looking for something to do (Score:2)
skool (Score:2)
Fucking blizzard a month ago messed the whole semester up....I have 1-2 exams a day every day for the last 3 weeks of the semester, then finals. Bleh.
at long last (Score:5, Insightful)
I believe the reason for this had to do with government and industry not wanting the labor groups to unite with labor groups outside the US making it that much harder for US labor to organize. This is why germans get a month or so vacation and Americans can hope for a week if they're lucky.
yes yes I know some smarty-pants
May 1 is also Space Day and Prayer Day (Score:4, Informative)
I also found that in the US, today is the National Day of Prayer. The link associated with it was down though.
http://www.nationaldayofprayer.org/aboutndp/histor y.cfm
Morris May Day in DC (Score:4, Informative)
sun up at 6:10 this morning as per our tradition, at the gazebo in Takoma Park. After a breakfast (eggs, donuts, coffee, and beer) we went back out to dance in TP, then metro'ed downtown to dance @ Union Station (Cap City Brewery), then the library of congress. There was a special presentaion today as Tony Barrand (PHD), a member of the New Hampshire team and folklorist, donated his archives to a folk dance in America exhibit now at the LoC. After that, we went back to the pub, as all good Morris Men do.
Re:how about this: (Score:2)
Re:What I dont know (Score:5, Informative)
The "mayday" that pilots radio was originally "M'aidez!" which is French for "Help me!".
IIRC, the real May Day was a Pagan festival that communists decided to use as on occasion to push for "workers rights". It's celebrated much more in Europe than in the US.
You insenitive unpatriotic clod! (Score:4, Informative)
Another reason why it's been proclaimed 'Loyalty Day' [whitehouse.gov] in the States.
Re:You insenitive unpatriotic clod! (Score:2)
I thought you were kidding until I read that link! How strangely bizarre is that? I guess this ranks up there with 'freedom fries' and the rest of the Fatherland propaganda. I, for one, am becoming increasingly disconcerted with the isolationist might-makes-right attitude that is accelerating throughtout the American populous. You can almost picture the posters lining the walls of our crumbling schools: 'America: Love It or Leave It',
Re:You insenitive unpatriotic clod! (Score:2)
Your Loyalty Day, my A$$!
Unless anymore has a better suggestion along those lines?
Re:I think I'm going to be sick. (Score:2, Informative)
It's been Loyalty Day since 1958, when Congress passed Public Law 529, following an almost 10 year campaign by the Americanism Department of the Veterans Foreign Wars.
(Interestingly enough, May 1st is also "Law Day USA" by a 1961 Congress resolution)
The entire thing is just a silly, pointless remnant of the Cold War.
Re:MISSING OPTION (Score:4, Funny)
Did you run CAT-5 into your coffin or do you have wireless?
graspee
Re:MISSING OPTION (Score:3, Informative)
Re:MISSING OPTION (Score:5, Insightful)
If there won't be anymore Cowboy Neal options, then AT LEAST MAKE ONE OF THEM FUNNY. The last two polls have been completely irrelevant to my situation and there was no "funny" option to take.
Bah, feh, and humbug.
Gotta ask... (Score:4, Interesting)
OK, I'm Canadian, and I gotta ask -
What are you celebrating on Cinqo de Mayo? (I hear references about it on US TV shows, but nobody really mentions what you're celebrating..)
Can you help enlighten me?
Re:Gotta ask... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Gotta ask... (Score:5, Insightful)
Bzzztt...wrong answer [vivacincodemayo.org]. It's not Mexico's Independence Day. May 5 is the anniversary of a Mexican army's tremendous victory over French and Mexican troops.
But in America Cinco De Mayo is another excuse for los gringos to get drunk. Sure does wonders for the economy. Viva la Invented Holiday!
Re:Gotta ask... (Score:3, Funny)
Sometimes when you really need a victory, you have to make do with what you have...
Chris Mattern