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Comment The spreadsheet won't help. (Score 2, Insightful) 600

Banks notoriously like to post your transactions NOT in the order in which you make them, but in the order the merchant reports them.
So if you've got a balance of $1,000 on close-of-business Friday, make $900 worth of purchases over the weekend, you should have a balance of $100.
First thing Monday, you know you've got a large bill coming due on Wednesday, so you make a $500 deposit, thus bringing your balance to $600.
You make the payment Wednesday, taking your balance down to $50, and your Cheque Register (& spreadsheet) show your balance as $50.
Except the Bank posted them in some twisted order that leaves you with $200 worth of NSF fees because you supposedly left your account overdrawn.
And there isn't a damned thing you can do about it because they say "We can't control when the Merchants post your transactions."
Yeah, except my Cheque Register & spreadsheet show all my transactions AND the balances, and MY numbers don't match YOUR numbers.
Guess who loses - it sure as hell isn't the bank because YOU get to pony-up the NSF fees.
Changing banks won't help, they all do it.
So, please, honestly, explain to me how the spreadsheet is supposed to help?
It hasn't so far, and I'm so anal-retentive when it comes to my money, it pisses me off that I can double-check my math with a calculator & come up with the same answers every time, but the bank seems to be pulling numbers out of its ass ...
=(

Comment Same here... I was wondering WTH? (Score 1) 493

Ubuntu 8.10, current as of 23:59Hrs PST last night & Firefox 3.0.6 [Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.6) Gecko/2009020911 Ubuntu/8.10 (intrepid) Firefox/3.0.6].
I tried right-clicking various elements of the page & the pop-open menu stays open until I click an entry in it, or click away elsewhere on the screen.
I couldn't MAKE it close prematurely, or pick the wrong entry.
I feel so deprived...
=} *errrrr*

Comment Someone with points PLEASE Mod this Up. (Score -1, Troll) 299

Who is actually surprised that a MS-centric software company quote-unquote-couldn't release a non-MS-centric product that was worth a damn?
"Oh, we tried to make a Mac/Linux client, but no one wanted it."
No one wanted it because you made it *SUCK*.
If you'd given it even HALF the attention you'd given your MS client, then the Mac/Linux community would've used the native Linux client.
Instead, if they wanted even halfway-decent results, you forced them to run your MS client under a Cider/WINE environment, thus defeating any benefits a native client might have given.
You certainly didn't get a realistic data-set of who preferred which client, because you made everything BUT the MS client, suck utter llama testicle sweat.
Since you starved it for resources & caused the Mac/Linux clients to be utter crap, no one wanted to use them, and you're using the "massive Windows client use" numbers to justify shutting down the development of what you didn't want to do in the first place.
This isn't surprising, it's sad.
Sad that you're obviously refusing to cater to a ever-increasing market, because you want to suckle at the perceived-to-be-inexhaustible-fount-of-profits MS teat.
Karma will have a lovely swift kick in the pants waiting for you if the Mac/Linux market share puts a serious crimp in the MS coffers, causing your fountain of wealth to turn into a trickle of poverty.
You should have put equal resources to each of the clients, so they ALL kicked ass.
That way, no matter if your customer was on a Windows, Mac, or Linux system, they could find a reason to send you their money.
Instead, you decided to piss off two-thirds of your customer base.
Nice one, dip shits.

Comment With a hard-plastic "recipe box" & 3x5 cards. (Score 1) 485

Take a stack of 3x5 cards & write in the upper left area of the card:
DATE:
TIME:
LOCATION:
SUBJECT:
NOTES:
Then take a piece of standard cello-tape, fold it into a loop (so there's a "sticky side" on both sides), and tape a single memory card to the card *label side up*.
That is your clue that the card is empty & ready to be used.
Repeat this with as many memory cards as you have.
Put them all in the hard-plastic "recipe box" 3x5 card container & close the lid.
Toss it into your camera bag.

When you get to a 'Shoot Location, set the box on the table, flip open the lid, & lay a few (3x5 Cards + Memory Card) on the table.
When you use a card, stick it back on the 3x5 card *label side down* so you know that one's already been used.
When you're done with the Shoot, fill out each card, stick them in the front of the box, & when you get home, deal with them as normal.

Make new blank 3x5 Cards for each of the Memory Cards you've used.
Put the freshly-emptied Memory Card label-side-up on the blank card, & put it back in the box.
Put the box in your camera bag.

Repeat this cycle for each shoot, and you'll always have a list of what's on each Memory Card.
Once you've emptied the Memory Card to your computer for processing, write the photo file names on the associated 3x5 card.
This way you have a perm record of each shoot: When, Where, & What.

Then you can label the top of the 3x5 Card with a general idea of what the shoot was about (ex: "Soccer Game", "Vanessa on the Beach", etc), & use the 3x5 Cards as a literal "Card Catalog".
Organize them by similar topics (sports, people, etc), & then you should be able to easily find the names of the photos associated with that topic.
Finding the photo files themselves is variable as to how/where you store them, but the 3x5 Card "Catalog" will be a complete record of what you've taken.

My father did this for nearly twenty years.
Shoot a roll of film, put the film in its canister, tape the canister to a 3x5 card with the Date/Time/Notes bits, & grab a new roll from the next card.
Get home, process the film in the dark room, & then save the physical photos behind the matching 3x5 card.

Put a new box of (canisters + 3x5 cards) in his camera bag, & never worry about remembering where or what any particular roll of film was about.
He kept the notes as he took the shots, and now nearly thirty years later, the family doesn't wonder who is in any particular shot.
We can flip through the photo album, read the 3x5 card before each group of pictures, and know *exactly* where each picture was taken, when, & of whom.

Now that you do the storage digitally, you can have an even larger collection of photos at your disposal.
Which means a LOT more 3x5 Cards, but the principle still holds.
You'll have kept a record.
Your family will thank you.
=)

Comment I wish I had mod points... (Score 2, Interesting) 338

Because you've earned +10 Insightful / Informative / Enlightening ...
My local area used to have two main newspapers, but then one got absorbed by the other, & we've had utter crap ever since.
Less news, more ads, less content, more crap.
I've come to rely on online news sources (AP, Reuters, etc) over print media for the simple fact that, by the time it IS in print, it's been online for upwards of a day, sometimes as much as a MONTH beforehand.

I'm not sure what keeps the newspapers in business given the only thing they have to offer over their online counter-parts is the added "value" of having to dig the paper out of the bushes, off the roof, or wring it out from the puddle the moron threw it into.
If I want a clean, professional, properly assembled (meaning *I* don't have to put it in its proper order) paper, I have to buy it from a vending machine.
The one I've paid to have delivered ends up arriving mangled (either by where it's landed, because of the rubber band used to hold it together, or both), wet (because they rarely use a plastic bag to cover them anymore), & unassembled.
Couple that with the fact that it's all old news I could (& have) read about online a day or two before, there's increasingly less reason to subscribe to it at all.

Which is why they keep giving it to me at half price when they call to ask me to renew & I tell them it's not worth the full price.
"It's old news regurgitated from online sources, stuffed full of ads like a Thanksgiving Turkey, & delivered in a completely unprofessional manner.
I'm not paying $30 a month for the 'convenience' of delivery when it's only two blocks to the nearest store that sells them, costs less per paper, & I end up getting a professionally prepared product.
You might want to think about that when it comes to renewing the delivery idiot's contract, because he's losing you a customer."
That's when they offer it at half price, promise to "reprimand" the delivery agent (they never do), & the cycle continues.

I think, next time it comes up, I'll cancel all-together.
There really is NO reason to get the thing anymore given the (lack of) quality & (un)professional delivery.
I'm already paying for internet where I can get my news for free.
The newspaper is worthless at that point.

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