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Comment Re:TV Shows - ALL episodes at once (Score 1) 193

How is this a problem? It seems more like desire for the status quo.

a) Plenty of people gab around me gab about Netflix's shows. The difference is that they can gab about the entire season rather than specific episodes. I heard way more talk about, say, Daredevil or Jessica Jones, than I do about Game of Thrones or American Gods.

b) With DVRs and other on-demand services for shows, even weekly shows no longer have the watercooler effect on Monday.

Some people binge watch them all at once, and that's fine, some people watch them when it fits their schedule, and that's fine (I'll watch 2-3 episodes per week). I'd much rather prefer to have the freedom to choose when I need to watch something, than to be told.

Comment Re: Ponzi Scheme?? (Score 1) 102

Bitcoin transactions need to be "confirmed" by miners to be put into the blockchain and made official. In order to incentivize miners to do this, the Bitcoin protocol supports a transaction fee in the transaction that goes to the miner who confirms it.

Currently, the floor fee most miners will use is 220 satoshis per byte, or 49,720 satoshis for the median transaction size (https://bitcoinfees.21.co/). That's about $0.66.

If the reward of mining bitcoins drops below the cost of the electricity to do so, it would be balanced by an increase in the transaction fee. Theoretically, the reward of mining bitcoins could drop to zero and transaction fees could still make it profitable by confirming transactions.

More info: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transaction_fees

Comment Re:Sorry. (Score 1) 240

If you have the cash to pay off a credit card, then I can't see any good reason to have a credit card instead of a debit card. To pay more fees? How's that a bonus for you?

I have an American Express Blue Cash card; I get ~$400 in cash back every year, and there's no annual fee.

(In addition, the last I looked, the consumer protection on a credit card was better than a debit card, though that may have equalized in recent years.)

Comment Re:Bad Idea (Score 1) 1219

I suspect what the GP means (and this is how it is in Illinois) is that taking a breathalyzer when asked to by law enforcement is a requirement of having the license. If a cop asks you to take one, you are allowed to say no, but if you do, you immediately forfeit your license. In Illinois, at least, refusing to take the breathalyzer is a summary suspension of your license for a year. However, it doesn't result in a DUI charge (at least, on it's own; if the prosecutor has other evidence, there may still be charges).

Comment News from the gym (Score 4, Interesting) 177

Newsflash: People who go to the gym regularly hate January. Starting January 1st, there's a new flood of people showing up at the gym. Leaving aside the mobs who don't know what they're doing, especially with the free weights, there's simply *so* many of them that your gym routine becomes a chore because you have to wait for access to each new machine/station, and time limits are put onto the cardiovascular machines.

By February, 95% of these people have gone, and life can return to normal.

So, please. If you want to improve yourself and start going to the gym -- and bully for you for wanting to do that -- do *not* do it in January. Wait until February, avoid the lemming rush.

Comment Re:Unasked Question (Score 1) 539

When I served jury duty in the US courts, lawyers on both sides were given your name, address, and the answers you gave to a brief questionnaire.

When prospective jury members were being questioned in the voie dire, the lawyers addressed the prospective jury members by their last names ("Mrs. Jones, are you now or have you ever been a member...", etc).

Comment Re:Health insurance (Score 1) 637

The "real cost" is the cost for me to buy it myself, right?

One vial of insulin down at the local Walgreen's (pharmacy chain) is about $70. I require two vials a month (one Humalog, one NPH) -- $140. Syringes are $10 for a pack of 10[1], and I use 6 a day (4 Humalog injections, 2 NPH) -- $180. Test strips are $90 per 100, and I test 4 times a day -- $120. Throw in some more money for the lancets (those little sharp pins that are used to draw blood to test your sugar with).

[1] Syringes used to be five times cheaper -- $2 for a pack of 10, but that changes around 2004 or so, and the change was at all the pharmacies in my area. Syringes are a real pain to buy in a pharmacy because of all the legal record keeping that goes with them.

Would this stuff be cheaper in Mexico? Sure. But I don't live in Mexico. If I did, I wouldn't have the salary that I have here. Travelling to Mexico in order to pick up the medication even three months would eat up any savings. But even if they would ship it here for free, going by the prices quoted in the other guy's post, my current health insurance would *still* be cheaper ($150 / month vs $183.75 / month).

Comment Health insurance (Score 4, Insightful) 637

I'm a type I diabetic. I just refilled my 3-month prescriptions today, to a tune of about $1,500 worth of stuff. Out of pocket cost to me: $0. Medical insurance for those three months: $450.

All of the other choices can be worked around. Not so with "being unconscious as your body enters ketoacidosis because you lack insulin".

Comment Re:Rights violation? (Score 5, Informative) 199

REGIS: For $16,000, the question is, 'What right do they have to risk the life of a presumed innocent man with dangerous surgery?' Your choices are...

A. The Patriot Act
B. The Alien and Sedition Act
C. The Jack Bauer Act
D. The part where he agreed to the surgery.

CONTESTANT: Hmmm. Hmmm. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

Hmmmmmmmmm.

Um. I'd like to use a lifeline.

REGIS: Alright! Which lifeline would you like to use?

CONTESTANT: I think I'm going to use my "Read The Fucking Article" lifeline, Regis.

REGIS: Alright! Computer, please print out a copy of the article for our contestant!

CONTESTANT: *reads* Regis, I'm going to have to go with 'D', "The part where he agreed to the surgery."

REGIS: Final answer?

CONTESTANT: Final answer.

Comment As a Chicagoan... (Score 1) 863

As a Chicagoan (who drives, no less), I don't mind the new parking meters. Yes, the rates have gone up. Yes, the city government gave up a lot of revenue by leasing out the meters to a company who raised the rates, rather than having the balls to raise the rates themselves.

But, I can now use bills and credit cards to pay for the meter, which is infinitely more convenient than having to have quarters on hand. The meters themselves track the hours of operation and inform you *up front* about whether you have to pay or not -- if it's 7:30am and the meters don't go into effect until 9:00am, you'll be informed and if you pay anyway, the time you'll buy still starts at 9:00am instead of 7:30am.

However, the biggest thing I like is that I can actually find parking now. Back when parking was $0.25 an hour, you could park your car there all day for $2.50, which is what everyone did. Now that it's (shock) $1.00 an hour, most people just go for the lot. Even downtown, where it's $4.00 an hour, the upside is that I can find a place to park if I need to do some quick shopping.

And for people who complain that the left over time is wasted -- nothing stops you from taking your slip and putting it on/near the parking box for someone else to use if you've got a significant amount of time left on it.

Role Playing (Games)

Managing Player-Created Content In City of Heroes 43

Superhero MMO City of Heroes recently went live with its 14th expansion (release notes), one of the main features of which is the Mission Architect, a system to allow players to create their own quest content and then submit it to be implemented into the game. Now, Joe Morrissey of the City of Heroes team has written an article about how they plan to manage the content that players create. "You have to decide how draconian you want to be. The more hardcore you are, the fewer people who will see inappropriate content, but you expose yourself to potential grief voting. Grief voting is when a player flags perfectly acceptable content as inappropriate just because it's fun. If it only takes a single vote to eliminate content from the game, clicking that button is going to be the game for a lot of players. You don't want perfectly good content getting pulled because someone's a jerk."

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