A few years back I took $100 out of one bank and deposited it at another. The second bank only credited me $80, and sent me a letter informing me that one of the bills was counterfeit. I called the bank and explained that while I'm sure they were right, I'd been handed the bill by another bank and I had no chance of detecting the counterfeit bill so it wasn't fair to punish me. They, of course, wouldn't agree with that but they *did* give me a $20 counter credit because they wanted to keep me as a customer.

A couple decades ago when all paper money was as counterfeitable as the $1 bill remains, I worked at a fast food joint and would encounter counterfeit money on a fairly regular basis. The thing is, it was obvious to me that the poor schmo trying to buy a burger hadn't made the bill, and was just handing me a stack of money he'd been handed by somebody else. Who knows where the counterfeiter was? So unless I thought the customer was actually trying to swindle I'd just take the money and let the banks sort it out later.

Similar thing here: the purchasers are unwittingly caught in the crosshairs. Nothing good comes of attacking the person who's already been unknowingly swindled.

Any guesses what book he was reading? Something about object oriented design.

http://www.robertames.com/blog.cgi/entries/links/patents-feb-2005.html

Mah blog. I has it. And a decent write-up of the origins of the expression when it occurred to me to research it.

--Robert

Well, my wife and I bake a lot, and we buy a pound of butter every time we go to the store. We go to the store twice per month, and there are two of us, so I guess that's 12 lbs /year each (or 5 Kg/year each).

Of course, I can just take a knife, cut a slice, and eat the stuff raw.

But the American stuff does actually kind of suck. The only *good* butter available in my area is President from France. Lurpak, which is Danish, is also better than the American stuff, but not as good as President. On the Continent, the selection is far better, and President is the crap there; but here in Minnesota, I take what I can get. European salted butters are just about always the most flavorful, rich, and creamy of butters.

Most people don't even pay enough attention to notice the taste, judging by the crap that's sold in most grocery stores. Of course, it's all better than that horrible margarine crap, which is substantially similar to just rubbing vegetable shortening (read Crisco) on your food...

Democracy and freedom of assembly are sure bad for those in power!

If our we-know-way-better-than-you leaders could just assume power Castro-style and squash the phones/press/internet, just think of how much safer we would be!

Now pull your head out and realize that this is exactly what the Communist Chinese Govt tells their people every day!

Democracy IS NOT SAFE! It never will be!!

"Blood is freedom's stain" - Iron Maiden