Income inequality is just envy. - Mitt Romney

Update

The background image is now gone.

The research is whether congressional hipocracy is exempt. It appears that under the law the congressman's website would have been permanently shut down for copyright infringment.

The background image on Chairman Lamar Smith own website was being used without the consent of the photographer.

I have tried to explain the value of understanding how to code and the software development process even if you are not planing on becomming a software engineer. I liken it to the benefit of anyone going into business having a basic understanding of accounting and the legal process. While it may not be your job to engineer system wide solutions, an understanding of code can make you more efficient at your job.

My employers have always been amazed how I can obtain levels of productivity above and beyond that of my prececessors. I do most of this by using C#, VB or VBA and an indepth knowledge of Logic. I leverage the common tool most offices have (MS office) to shave time off every function of my day.

My success comes from the fact that I am a coder, although I don't market myself as one. I grew up in the information age my first computer was the IBM PC (1984). I started coding as a child using basic and quicky moved to Fortran, Cobal and beyond. I view computers as a resource not a tool. A tool has a function, a resource is raw and can be leveraged using tools to perform many functions. I don't see a computer for what it does, I try to ask what can it do?

Technophobia plagues our society even today, 40 years into the computer age. The thing that shocks me is the number of people who assume that computers are for someone else, the smart and techie. I think this is what this program is trying to teach. Maybe you'll never become a software engineer but you can still learn to code and create value even in a basic office job. A few years down the road from the learning experiance you may find yourself as a software engineer, or maybe just a manager like me.

The reason why the Car Stereo is on the same network is because too many people were buying cars with no stereo or the basic stereo then going to after market shops where they could get a much better stereo for the same amount of money. Manufacturers decided that to reduce this they would just make the car stereo a required part for the whole system to work. It gives you a good reason to pay $1200 for the stereo upgrade which we know isn't worth $600.

The bill also included the fines levied by the TSA for failing to file an export declariation on the space rag.

I do password auditing for my primary employer and a few small businesses I have contracts with on the side. I would like to add:

1) Get a password vault, there are several applications for home PC and Smart Phones if you can't remember a lot of passwords.

2) Don't use the same password everywhere, or at least make sure your password for FaceBook is different from Hotmail.

3) Use a password generator if you need to have shortpasswords (8 - 10 characters).

4) Learn from XKCD

They call it the Sweetener, that is how they get you to pay for the must-carry.

I for one love my TiVo for that reason, you can manually edit your Cable Lineup. While I can't add channels I don't get, I can tell it that the shopping and other crap channels don't exist.

I would simply be happy if the cable company would allow me to pick 30 or 40 channels for $20 dollars instead of charging me $45 for 120 channels most of which I don't watch.

I would gladly pay more per channel if I could just pick them rather than have 90 channels of crap and maybe 30 that I watch. If my area wasn't as hilly I would just get a good antenna.

Most utility companies have a low percentage of online payments vs cell phone companies. Also, there are a lot of Public Utilities that for one reason or another have accounting rules that prevent deducting collection fees on non-delinquent accounts. While the surcharge on debit/credit transaction is not typically viewed as a collection charge, it is similar in the fact that you are paying a 3rd party to collect a payment and to account for this charge you would need to write down the original balance on the account in order to make it balance.

I don't really know if they are making more bonehead mistakes or if the public is just not as tolerant. I think the most obvious indicator of this is the Occupy Movement.

I have noticed in the most resent changes to my credit card terms that late payments would be subject to a "Rush Payment" fee of $5.00.

It appears they are doing the same thing, if you are late and trying to avoid being turned off then they're going to milk you for another $2.00