a little weighted toward the 'bad cop' i think

newtboy, get our ur credit card!!!

Well, I did as newtboy suggested and got a 90-day fraud alert from Credit Union. Hope whoever did this only had the card #, nothing more. The credit cards have been turned off and we'll be getting new cards and account #'s..

Hope it is not malware, DH is pretty good at setting up security on our computers but who knows.. I seem to attract malware.. but never anything serious, so far. I have been keeping an eye on my addons since I got a very sticky 'search engine' about a year ago and it took quite a while to get rid of it permanently..

I'll stay alert, try to see if using paypal whenever I can when shopping online, and just wait and see.

Just sucks, but at least I didn't have to pay any of that groupon stuff myself!

My post is not hyperbole, but actual personal observation.



You also have to factor in cost+ funding.

On one hand, it's necessary. Because you don't know how much something truly new will cost - you haven't done it before. You'll discover as you go.
It would be unfair to bind a company to a fixed cost, when nobody knows what the cost will be. It's mathematically unreasonable to entertain a fixed cost on new technologies.

(Granted, everyone gives silly lowballed best-case estimates when bidding. Anyone that injects a sense of reality into their bid is too costly and doesn't get the contract).

On the other hand, cost+ means that you make more money by spending more money. So hiring hordes of nobodies for every little task, making 89347589374 different position titles, is only gonna make you more money. There's no incentive to save.



F35 wise, like I said, it's not designed for any war we fight now.
It's designed for a war we could fight in the future.
Because you don't start designing weapons when you're in a war, you give your best effort to have them already deployed, tested, and iterated into a good sustainable state, before the onset of a conflict that could require them.

F35 variations are not complicated. The VTOL variation is the only one with any complexity. The others are no more complex than historical variations from early to late blocks of any given airframe.

The splitting of manufacturing isn't in itself a complication ridden approach. It's rather normal for different companies to work on unrelated systems. Airframe will go somewhere, avionics elsewhere, engine elsewhere, etc. That's basically a given, because different companies specialize in different things.

Keep in mind that the large prime contracts (Lockheed/GD/etc) don't actually "make" many things. They are systems integrators. They farm out the actual development for most pieces (be it in house contractors or external contractors - because they are easy to let go after the main dev is over), and they themselves specialize in stitching the pieces together. Connecting things is not difficult when they are designed with specified ICDs from the get-go. The black boxes just plug up to each other and go.

The issues that arise are often a matter of playing telephone. With one sub needing to coordinate with another sub, but they have to go through the prime, and the prime is filtering everything through a bunch of non-technical managers. Most problems are solved in a day or two when two subs physically get their engineers together and sort out any miscommunications (granted, contracts and process might not allow them the then fix the problem in a timely and affordable manner).

The F22 and F35 issues are not major insurmountable tasks. The hardest flaws are things that can be fixed in a couple months tops on the engineering side. What takes time is the politics. Engineers can't "just fix it". There's no path forward for that kind of work.

Sure, in a magic wonderland you could tell them "here, grab the credit card, buy what you need, make any changes you need, and let us know when you're done" - and a little while later you'd have a collection of non-approved, non-reviewed, non-traceable, non-contractually-covered changes that "just fix the damn thing"... and you'd also have to incur the wrath of entire departments who were denied the opportunity to validate their existence. The 'high paid welfare' system would be all over your ass.

-scheherazade

@newtboy
i know man and got respect for your position.
have many friends who feel exactly the way you do.
so im not hating.

i have sacrificed much to hold fast to my conviction.
i deal mostly in cash or barter.
i do not and will never have a credit card,nor a bank account.
i drive "illegally" ,though it is rare,because i refuse to subscribe to mandatory insurance.or any form of insurance for that matter,mandatory or not.
i treat opiate addicts for free and give them a place to stay because the clinics (state run and corporate) have a zero tolerance policy.they pee dirty ONCE,for anything and they get booted.so i take them in.

this one,in particular,gets me into some serious trouble with the authorities at the local addiction a.k.a methadone pill-mill.they turn me in at least once a year.the baliffs at the courthouse know me by name.

i get in trouble at tax time because i dont file.my business is not income driven but rather "donation" driven.so...suck it county clerk!

i do work at a friends restaurant as a bartender/waiter and thats on the books,but thats mostly for my child support.

all this has been hard on my family,well,my boys mainly.while they were growing up i didnt have a lot of extra resources,but they turned out pretty damn good.

simply put(me?simple?ha!)
my faith dictates my politics.

I often give iTunes gift cards. Smart people don't attach their credit cards to iTunes, so this is well received.

I do have a problem with the title, it's too long. "Jimmy Carr Destroys Hecklers" is like saying, "Jimmy Carr".

I just spent the entire weekend fighting with my daughter's Windows 8 laptop.
The microsoft account pretty much hijacked the entire computer. We got locked out of the MS account and it kept prompting us to enter a "Code" to unlock it. It wouldn't send us a code.
Tried to contact MS but Apparently, the only way Microsoft will talk with us, is through our MS account -- their site specifically says, "and if you can't access your account, you need to create a second MS account in order to talk to us."

We ended up just abandoning the entire MS Account and creating a new one, and of course, that locked her out of all the Apps on her laptop. She basically had to make new accounts for everything. All because Windows 8 acts just like those viruses that lock you out of your computer, till you give them your credit card number!!

She can't even use her computer without logging into the MS Account.

Despising Windows 8!

How is it not surprising that the problem sees no problem?

You say : "I don't see people getting beat up, or shot, or assaulted, or arrested for no reason"
So, those that were "beat up, or shot, or assaulted, or arrested", were for a good reason, right?

Ever consider that those reasons are often made up?
Ever consider that the stories you heard around the water cooler were simply B.S., and it was in fact the police simply preying on innocent people?



Just what exactly does LE do for me, or anyone?

Do police have super powers and spidey senses?
Will they magically teleport to someone getting raped, and prevent it?
Will they magically teleport to someone getting run over, and prevent it?
Will they magically teleport to someone getting beaten, and prevent it?
Will they magically teleport to someone getting robbed, and prevent it?
The answer is : no.

Police can't actually /help/ anyone.
They can only show up after the fact, and ask you what happened, and if you know who did it.
If you don't know who it was, tough shit. Sucks to be you.
Unlike on TV, there is no in-depth investigation. The most they do is tell you to call them if you remember something else. (This is speaking from experience)

What if you're not around to even tell them anything? Almost every murder committed by an unrelated stranger without witnesses or video goes unsolved.
Why? Because all police know how to do is ask friends/family where they were, and if everyone has an excuse, police got nothing.

At least when a normal person [that you can identify] harms you, you /can/ call the police, and maybe, just maybe, if they feel like it, they will round them up after the fact.

(They often don't. We've had people dumping trash on our land : police didn't respond. We've had people hunting [strangers shooting guns] on our property : police didn't respond. Brought evidence of a fraud to the police station, with account numbers, names, addresses : we won't investigate. The only time they ever came was to talk with my mother after she reported her credit card number was being used by a stranger - LOL, of all the things, they bother coming for /that/?)

But if the police harm you, you've got nowhere to turn to - but them. And they care more about each other, than some stranger.

Heck, I've been tailgated by a cop, on a multi-lane road, so close his headlights weren't even visible over my trunk. He could have gone around me any time. After miles, when I finally sped up - BAM. Ticket.

I've pulled up to a roadblock by my house, and asked if I could go by. The guy was so incensed that he detained me for hours, and told me I was threatening his life, reckless driving, and not wearing a seatbelt.

I've been threatened by a cop - because I interrupted her chat with her girlfriend to ask for directions around a road they were closing off.

I've been pulled over with gun drawn, for trivial speeding (well below reckless).

Seriously people, every time you get pulled over, you are at risk of getting shot, because someone is trained to be suspicious and paranoid, and they saw something shiny.

Just look at how they behave. Cop shoots his daughter in his own garage, because he thought she was a burglar.
What, too much to ask just to look at the person to see if they're even a burglar? Shoot first ask questions later.

Every year there are multiple cases of police raiding a house and shooting people - only to find out it was the wrong house. What, too much trouble to be a decent human being and just knock first, and ask for whoever they need to come out?

Oh, but that might put them at a greater risk. And we all know that police take MINIMAL risks themselves, and instead risk the lives of the citizens. (Why not approach with gun drawn? At least you're ready to shoot the suspect. And if you accidentally shoot the suspect, oh well, just say they 'attacked'. No biggie. Why take the risk.)
The biggest risk they take, is the one they dream up for when they want to take credit for being the heroes they never were.

Look at the friggin VT shooting. Swarms of cops surrounding a building. Man inside, could be killing more people by the moment... and the cops just camp out and wait for him to kill himself.
Worst part, is if it were my family inside, and I tried to go in and stop the shooter, the police would just shoot me for trying to enter.

(And no, police don't deserve heroic praise. They deserve the _pay_check_ they signed up for. If that's not enough, they should take life more seriously and really think about what it is they're getting into, before they do it. Take responsibility, like an adult should.)

The police are a liability. They're armed. They're selfish. They're paranoid and suspicious. They're jumpy.
IMO, the best thing to do is keep away from them, don't look at them, don't talk to them. Stay away, and stay safe.

Oh yeah, and the police are also immune form the constitution's equal protection clause. "Because interpretation".

Look at the numbers. You are less likely to be arrested or go to jail in NORTH KOREA, than here in the U.S. of A. By a factor of 4 last I checked.
What the heck is going on here?

1 in 18 men is either in jail, on parole, or somewhere in the process of going to jail.
Most of the countries in Europe have smaller populations, than the people that we have 'in the system'. And most of the people we have 'in the system', never even harmed another person. They're just arrested for 'behavior crimes' - simply doing things that are not allowed. This is madness. The system is mad, the police are mad.

You don't end up with videos of a gang of police acting like gangsters, if it's a matter of 'a few bad apples'. They all have to be in the same frame of mind.
If they weren't all of the same frame of mind, one would do something bad, and the others would say "whoa there man, you're out of line".
But instead, they all do it. Because there are no 'bad apples'.
There is 'bad training', and 'bad culture', and it permeates the profession.

And when I say bad, I don't mean that "they are trained to be thugs".
I mean that the police don't see suspects as 'citizens (members of the state) that the police are on the side of'.
Whoever crosses their path is dehumanized. Some kind of "other", that the police need to protect society from. Not realizing that those people /are/ society, and /they/ need protection.
The kind of behavior that I see in these kinds of videos, it's simply treason. Betrayal of the state.

If the laws of this country were written to provide restitution to victims - and there were no laws to simply tell people how to live, and if the police spent their time providing restitution to victims, then I would have nothing but the greatest appreciation for the police.
As it stands, there's very little nobility around this profession. Majority of the job is simply picking on people - sometimes because they did harm, but usually because they mind their own business in an unapproved of way, or for kicks.

-scheherazade

Goddamnit.... the beta for this is 100 GBP!!

That's US$170! or approximately 7 billion NZ pesos....

sigh, here's my credit card... .just make it quick

Stop banking in the 19th century people. I can honestly count the number of times I've used cash in the last year on one hand.

I constantly see credit card companies attempt to prey on people in malls or with mailouts. Hell, they did it to me when I was young and stupid. When I started work, I got a credit card with a $500 limit on it for travel and expenses, etc. Less than 6 months later the bank had increased the limit 4 times to over $3000. If I was smart I should have refused each increase, but like an idiot I basically looked on it as free money. Suddenly I was paying a fortune in interest and struggling to clear the card. Every penny I earned went on it, and then I'd rack up the bills over the next month again just to live.

But credit cards are great if you know how to use them. Eventually I paid mine off and now I live completely off it; fuel, groceries, the works. I pay for everything on it, and I get reward points that easily cover the cost of the annual card fee. I make sure it's cleared every month. Meanwhile, my salary sits in my bank account offsetting my mortgage. Now it literally is free money.

I actually feel kinda bad, because essentially people who are bad with money and run up credit card bills at 20% interest are basically subsidising my card for me.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

I think there might be a few cases with debit type credit cards where your balance isn't checked immediately to validate the transaction, though I'd say these days that it must be pretty uncommon. I'm thinking of those old-fashioned imprint readers that you have to ratchet across the the card. Some taxis still use those here in Australia. Although my latest PayWave® Visa™ Debit card© doesn't even have raised numbers - so that wouldn't work.

I'm confused. Amex may not be the worst of the bunch, but aren't they also somewhat guilty of predatory loaning through their credit card business?

Wow.
That's super stupid, dude. I really don't want to insult you here BUT (yes, every asshole got one) what you wrote there is so much beyond silly or naive, there's no other word for it.
Let's cut the crap here, what you imply with "black youth" is gangmembers, right? We're talking gangs and gang violence. Well, these guys don't walk into a gun store and just buy their Glocks with a credit card. Most of them would probably buy them in illegal ways (because commiting crimes with guns licensed in your name is dumb) so gun legislation has not such an big impact on them anyways.
What the gun laws impact and what causes people to get upset and demanding more regulation is when "black youths" who are armed with skittles and ice tea get shot by scared "latin middleageds". It's when psychologically damaged, middleclass, white teens take their parents guns to school to each everyone a lesson, as seen in Columbine or Newtown. That's why people want regulation.
Criminals will always have access to guns, they don't have to rely on the NRA's uncanny ability to block all progress. Criminals is not who you have to worry here.
It's the dipshits and psychos. The schoolshoters, the parents that aren't able to keep their guns from their kids, the idiots who can't clean a gun while it's unloaded, people who have to stand their ground in the face of loud music, they're the problem. The so called responsible gun owners.

I don't care for your racism and even less for this weird and idiotic idea that black people with their violent music are the problematic aspect of american gun culture. Not everbody should have a gun, some people are simply not responsible enought for it and not all kinds of guns need to be available either. Or are you trying to tell me now that the Bushmaster .223 caliber XM15-E2S rifle is designed for hunting?

Actually, yes I do believe that. Since the lead up was (apparently, I have not seen it only read it) clips of Captain America, and "Working for Marvel, the Super Bowl commercial, did you get a lot of reaction to that Super Bowl commercial?"...I do believe that's what he meant, and was confused when Jackson angrily said "What commercial?!?"...and he seemed to second guess himself/his staff that it was in the Super Bowl. Only Jackson mentioned car or credit card commercials, the 'interviewer' mentioned Marvel, which had 2 Samuel Jackson Super Bowl commercials.
Today I've seen the clip re-played 1/2 dozen times, and they always removed the "working with Marvel" part in order to make the race baiting outrage make sense.
Seems cut and dry to me. Also hilarious...on both sides.
EDIT: Oh, and I call trailers "commercials"...I'm old and old school.
I never heard him admit he got them confused, only give a generic 'forced' apology that he was 'wrong'...I have not heard him say what he was wrong for, and I've looked.

You mean that there's a demand for a bank type institution to actually do what banks do: store savings and grants loans instead of taking your money, creating a huge sum of money from that, then invest that in to options and derivatives that is basically gambling, then losing it all and getting everything back as bailouts? Really, who would've guessed a traditional bank is a good thing when it doesn't run on "profit now" ultra-capitalist principle.

It's something that is very common elsewhere in the world. There usually is a demand for very simple, traditional basic banks that can't swindle with overdraft charges, credit cards pushed to people who can't handle them, just the basic bank you store money temporarily.

There are regulations in place that allow such banks to be exist and these banks are the real backbones of the economy, increasing growth in the smallest sectors that immediately invest that money back in to the economy. It might even be state backed bank or a group of citizens, it might be mandatory by law etc. Usually every country has one. It promotes equality, social mobility and keeps the cash rotating much longer than what investing towards investment banking does. The latter is just a cancer, it doesn't really do anything but it skims the most wealth and that wealth does not move anywhere, it stays in that imaginary system.

In USA, regulatory system is so stripped out that freerange capitalism is really showing how bad it is when it's left running things. Capitalism is like fire: good servant, poor master.

Um no. We respect women too much. Like the bible says, "Spare the rod, spoil the woman." We let them decide things and in turn they make us into little credit cards to be disposed of....sad...

But the solution is clear. Either get rid of our ape-like concepts of manhood or crush the fuck out of this respect-for-women-and-children-and-others bullshit.