* Posts by Larry Adams

27 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Aug 2007

Russians demand flying cars and telepathy

Larry Adams
Paris Hilton

Why not all...

I'm not greedy, I just want it all... except instead of just medicine for all illnesses and diseases, I want CURES for all of them. I mean, what's the point of immortality if you can't cure what ails you too?...

Paris, although I'm not sure I could stand a lifetime of her

Goldman Sachs seeks Goldman sucks site suit

Larry Adams
Paris Hilton

@Rogier van Vlissingen

The site is still there.... http://www.goldmansachs666.com/

The link in the story was missing the 's' before 666.

Paris... because she's bound to be better than this company.

Amazon probed by US Mail

Larry Adams
Paris Hilton

Amazon probed by US Mail

Amazon will be just the first large mailer reviewed. Given the number of mailers who play fast and loose with the Media Mail classification, ANY mailer who sends large quantities of Media Mail packages is going to be checked.

I can remember, as a window clerk, having people claim Media Mail rates for such diverse things as toys, clothing, and even mag wheels. Many of the people were eBay sellers. The "mistakes" were discovered when the packages were examined later, which the USPS has the legal authority to do for anything mailed at Parcel Post or Media Mail rates. One person mailed more than two dozen boxes to himself in another city, where he was moving... not one of the boxes qualified as Media Mail, and he was required to pay the correct postage when he picked them up... several hundred dollars in additional postage.

Amazon might be as pure as new driven snow, but not every mailer is... Personally, I would prefer to see the Media Mail rate eliminated because of the cheating.

Paris, because she doesn't need to cheat the Postal Service

Street View vehicle kills Bambi

Larry Adams
Paris Hilton

Not Aoidable...

"IMHO, this deer hit could have been avoided. The deer comes out of a small driveway on the left and it is a clearing, not a bunch of trees right up the road. If the driver was actually paying attention, he/she should have ease off the gas while Bambi runs across. Then, the evasive maneuver while braking is to go on the left lane since there was no incoming traffic and the road is straight (clear view ahead, no curves)."

OBVIOUSLY, you have never hit a deer, or come close to hitting one. Making a fast lane change to avoid a deer on the road is an almost guaranteed way to roll your car. Eighteen months ago I had a deer run out in front of my car while I was doing 60 mph. I was on a straight road, after dark, and I had at most a half second to react before I hit the deer. I didn't have time to brake, and barely enough time to grab onto the steering wheel to keep the car in a straight line. End result, one dead deer, over $7,000 damage to my car, including a hole in the radiator which prevented me from driving to the next town, but fortunately no injuries. The deer was running from right to left in front of me... if I had tried to swerve to the left at that speed I still could not have avoided the deer and probably would have lost control of the car as well. The was only one car or truck every 10-15 minutes at the time...

Paris, because she's had some close encounters too...

Virginia de-convicts AOL junk mailer Jeremy Jaynes

Larry Adams
IT Angle

Carrier Costs...

@ Marco van de Voort said: "So if I go around stuffing postboxes (the usual, snail mail kind) with as cheap as possible letters without stamps, then I can also succesfully make a plea based on free speech if the postal office complains?"

Actually, no you can't... the reason being, at least in the United States, federal law prohibits placing any matter in a mailbox on which the postage (stamps) has not been paid. The law has been tested and upheld a number of times in Federal court. The law authorizes a fine of up to $300 PER LETTER or other material, plus the postage that should have been paid. Thus someone who stuffed 1,000 mailboxes before being stopped could be on the hook for over $300,000.

IT angle? You need a computer to calculate the fines. BRING BACK PARIS

Parents plant spyware to snare sex predator

Larry Adams
Heart

A Parent's Job.

I have a story to relate that goes back to before home computers were common... probably in the late-1980's. My wife's foster sister had a daughter (only child) who, at the age of about _14_, ran off with her high school teacher, probably in his late 20's. The teacher played on the daughter's age and naivety to convince her to leave with him. Sister searched for years trying to find her, unsuccessfully.

Finally, around 2004, she found the daughter. Or rather found the record that the teacher had killed her daughter in Arizona about a year after they left Northern California. The only thing she could do by then was have her remains returned to the Bay Area. The teacher is in prison for (hopefully) life. Of course, he wasn't teaching in Arizona, because that would have required using his real name, and AZ would have found out that he was wanted in CA on a number of charges such as kidnapping and sexual misconduct.

I was much more fortunate with my daughter... she rarely used the computer and it was always in the family room. She did marry at 19, but is still married to the same guy 14 years later and has two beautiful daughters

My name really is Ivan O'Toole, admits Ivan O'Toole

Larry Adams
Paris Hilton

Strange names...

When my wife was expecting our second child, the Ob-Gyn see saw a couple of times was Dr. James Coffin...

Irate sysadmin locks San Francisco officials out of network

Larry Adams
Paris Hilton

@ Damian Wheeler

@ Damian Wheeler said: It isn't terribly clear in what way he was a poor performer, or was it that someone objected to his salary?

HE was probably the one who objected to his salary. He wasn't getting paid anywhere near as much as many of the police and firemen in San Francisco. Where else can a policeman make $180,000 a year with overtime, then retire with his pension based on the last full year's pay, including overtime... at age 50.

Paris, because she understands money

Swedish authorities pull plug on female Elvis

Larry Adams
Paris Hilton

Another one...

Another name that probably wouldn't pass muster in Sweden... My wife's cousin has a granddaughter named Kaia Snapdragon. Her older brothers (3 and 5) were allowed to choose her middle name.

Paris ... just because...

Area 51 drug test victim crashes flying car

Larry Adams
Coat

Just another loser.

Give the guy a break... He got nabbed on Sunday evening... He was probably on his way to work and left early so he could get there in time Monday morning... That Highway 101 commute in San Rafael is H*LL.

Seriously though, hope he has an enjoyable stay at the iron bar hotel...

/getting my coat and heading for work in San Rafael

US cops taser groom, cuff drunken bride

Larry Adams
Dead Vulture

@ Anonymous Coward...

You don't know the cops in Vallejo... they don't take anything from anyone... My son had a friend whose brother mouthed off to the cops some years ago... he didn't survive the confrontation... Some parts of Vallejo have such a bad reputation that the police don't just use 2 cars... they call in 4-6 cars, or in this case TEN cars according to the article in the local paper. I've been through the area in the daytime... but only the daytime... ain't no place for honkies...

Vulture, because even they aren't safe there

Boss puts development team on Craigslist

Larry Adams
Dead Vulture

@ TrackSuit

>> I find it extraordinary that a company would choose to refuse good advice or useful information, whenever it is offered so readily. This was a talented and professionally qualified engineer with years of experience. <<

I know the feelling well... I retired (aging myself, I know) from the Post Office, from a position last year where much of the work I did, I was the only one in the office who knew what needed to be done, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual reports, IT support, etc. I gave the boss three months notice, and waited and waited to be told who to pass 35+ years of knowledge to... Three weeks before I left, the boss, who had been there on a one year detail, returned to his permanent office two hours away, and a temporary boss came in... Another week went by... I was finally told to train one person on one small portion of my job... And I had to fit that training around her work schedule, so I ended up being able to give her about eight hours training...

Sure enough, the week after I retired, my former supervisor called me a half dozen times... the first time while I was standing in front of the ToonTown Post Office at Disneyland... One of the calls was because there was no one left in the office knew where the control box for the alarm system was located and a Postal Inspector needed access to the system.

California Highway Patrol rounds up queens, workers

Larry Adams
Paris Hilton

@ Anonymous Coward

I suppose we can be glad they weren't Africanized killer bees...one sting is never enough for those bad boys...

Paris because she's busy as a little bee can be...

US Congress members push Gates's line on visas

Larry Adams
Paris Hilton

@ Anonymous Coward

<< I'm guessing Microsoft et al want GOOD tech workers rather than the multitude of self-qualified "tech workers" that are out of work for good reason. Note that under H1B rules the employer has to pay the equivalent salary as a US worker. >>

And just who determines that "equivalent salary" except Billy Boy and friends... They set the salary for the H1B positions they want to fill so low that nobody in their right minds (i.e., wants to have a roof over their head and food in the fridge) will take the job. If they could pay federal minimum wage and get a live body, they would do so in an instant.

I have friends with CompSci degrees and significant experience who can't get a decent job in Silicon Valley, where McDonald's has to pay $12-14 an hour just to get someone to flip hamburgers because of the cost of housing. Their last job was oursourced to India or Thailand or someplace where Billy Boy can pay the flunkies there $20 a day or less.

Paris, 'cos I know she couldn't work for Billy

Scotland Yard criminologist: DNA-print troublemaker kids

Larry Adams
Coat

@ Fraser

<< As a 2nd point about deterrent, in America, the states where they have the death penalty roughly corolate to the states with the highest murder rate. The death penalty in America also costs more than keeping someone in Prison for life, with life meaning life. >>

The death penalty in the US isn't really a deterrent because, with the exception of Texas, it's rarely imposed... California's "death row", prisoners who have been sentenced to the death penalty, total more than 600... The last execution in California was in December 2005. And there's now an indefinite stay on all executions because of a claim that lethal injection is "cruel and unusual" punishment, and before that the electric chair and gas chamber were determined to be cruel and unusual. The truth is that most prisoners on death row will probably die of old age or medical causes before they're executed.

My coat please, the heavy one, because I'm ready to leave California and brave those sub-zero winters in my native mid-west.

Wikileaks exposes Scientology's zeal to 'clean up rotten spots of society'

Larry Adams
Flame

Billion Year Contract...

I think if you check the employment laws in most states (in the US) and in other countries, there is a maximum length of time you can lock up your life to one employer... I think it's generally between five and seven years, and almost always no more than ten years... so that so-called employment contract could not stand up in court... not without taking over the courts.

But, I suppose COS has plans for the contingency too...

Flame because I expect the COS freaks will do their best to burn me.

Late Night Larry

Brit apiarists demand £8m to save honeybees

Larry Adams
Coat

@ Ishkandar

" Solution to this problem - send each and every member of this government a box full of angry bees that will explode out of the box on opening and sting them where it hurts most. I'm sure some positive action will be taken !! "

Maybe they should bring in boxes of Africanized Killer Bees from the American Southwest... Your normal bee stings, then loses its stinger and dies... the AKB's can sting repeatedly, and swarms of them have been known to kill people. The breed developed wthen some bees from Africa being studies in South America got into the wild and began moving north with every spring... In the last few years, they've crossed the border from Mexico and are spread from Texas to Arizona, and maybe Southern California... Oh, and they easily angered, and when angered keep right on coming back to sting again...

My coat please, the beekkeeper's outfit, with hat and gloves...

Late Night Larry

Want to snoop on your neighbors? Come and work in Wisconsin

Larry Adams
IT Angle

@ Jon Tocker

I retired last year from a US government agency which takes IT very seriously. With the exception of the MS Office programs, virtually every other program available throughout the system was on a "need to know" basis to get access. Your immediate manager could not authorize your access, he/she could only send a request up to a higher level, sometimes a VERY high level in the food chain, to get approval. The computers required a login and password to even get on them, and then you would only have access to MS Office. The computers were locked down so that only administrators could install any software, and the only administrator logins were at the district office and the Hell desk. Even to have email access required second level approval. And any program dealing with personnel information was only available to HR staff in the district office or higher. My login was canceled by midnight on the day I retired.

Late Night Larry

Google eyes Cleveland medical records

Larry Adams
Coat

Google eyes Cleveland medical records

Google isn't first by any means... possibly first to put the information on a possibly unrestricted web site. Kaiser Permanente in California has been converting medical records to electronic media for well over a year. While there were some startup problems with it, it is working fairly well now.

My doctor can order lab work to be done immediately or at a future date online while I'm still in the examination from. He can email a new prescription to the pharmacy and it will generally be ready by the time I walk from his office to the pharmacy. He can give me a written copy of his findings at the examination, and include in it any specific instructions.

It is password protected, doubly so because you have to register on the Kaiser website, and then request access, which is mailed to your address of record. You can't review every page in your records, but can see what you need to know, what prescriptions you're taking (in case your feeble brain can't remember all of them).

Coat please... the medical jacket

US man threatens TV repairman with shotgun

Larry Adams
IT Angle

@ Only in California (and other restricted states).

Reminds me of a letter carrier (postie in the UK) I used to know. He transferred from Los Angeles and was telling me about an incident there when he was fairly new to the job. Another carrier from his station was delivering mail in a somewhat undesirable neighborhood, and one house had a five foot fence around it. The mailbox was outside the fence, and placed in such a way that the carrier had to stand with his back to the fence to place mail in the box or get hit by passing cars. The owner had a rather aggressive dog (shall we say vicious?). When the carrier was placing mail in the box (back to the fence, remember?), the dog tried to come over the fence, but only got its head over... and promptly bit down on the carrier's neck... and kept on chewing until it finally dropped back over into the yard some long period of time later. Carrier goes across the street, blood all over his upper body, asks the construction crew to call the post office for him. Carrier picks up a nice 4-6 foot long piece of steel rebar. Carrier returns to the fence, opens the gate and goes through. When the dog attacks him again, he uses the rebar like a baseball bat, and kept on using it until the dog was dead, and STILL kept on using it until his supervisor, who had arrived by this time, pulled him off. Meanwhile dog's owner is going into hysterics about her dog. Police come out, listen to both sides, and charge the dog's owner with harboring a vicious animal. Carrier goes to hospital for treatment and a couple of months off to recover. Both carrier and dog owner file lawsuits (this is California, after all). Carrier gets large chunk of money from dog owner, aided by medical report and photographs his supervisor had taken. Judge rules carrier's actions temporary insanity and throws dog owner case out of court.

IT angle?... there isn't one, rebar is very low tech

Late Night Larry

DHS official moots Real ID rules for buying cold medicine

Larry Adams
Pirate

Meth Ingredient Purchase?

>> Doesn't the production of meth involve significant quantities of the relevant ingredients?

And wouldn't the bulk purchase (or repeat purchases) of said ingredients be rather obvious to the retailers anyway? <<

Many times the criminals producing meth aren't going to bother to buy the active ingredient anyhow. My son worked as a loss prevention specialist at a major retailer which sells cold medicines. He was watching the video security system when the bad boys came in, grabbed a storage container from sporting goods, then went over to the cold medicine shelf and literally swept everything off the shelf, into the container, and ran out the side door of the store through the garden department. Elapsed time from the time they grabbed the storage container until they were out the door: 90 seconds. Elapsed time after they cleared the shelf: less than 30 seconds. He literally did not have time to get from the security office to the door before they were out and gone. That's why most stores now have cold medicines under lock and key... California law now REQUIRES that they be locked down.

Late Night Larry

Reg readers bring down HMRC website

Larry Adams
Coat

Reg readers bring down HMRC website’

Well... speaking from the other side of the puddle, seems that our Infernal Revenue Service has a better handle on it... millions of people were able to file their returns on-line on the last day to file in 2007 with no problems. Even so, more millions simply could not or would not efile, and waited until the last day to put everything on paper forms and send them through the mail, creating huge lines at all the large post offices, with some staying opening until 23:59:59 to handle the crowd. I was late (for me) in filing my returns (state and federal) and didn't get them efiled until March, with the deadline being April 15.

Before I retired from the post office, I can remember walking out into the lobby of my office long after closing (10:00 or later, and we closed at 5:00) and seeing people actually filling out their returns standing in the lobby. And I can remember a few people every year on the day after the deadline asking me to "backdate" their returns to the previous day's date. Since that is illegal, I just asked them if they were ready to pay me the equivalent of my annual salary every year after we both got out of prison... That usually shut them up...

/the postie's jacket please. I'm going home to efile my tax return so I can get my refund.

Late Night Larry

Wine Country, CA

eBay: 'We will lower listing fees'

Larry Adams
Coat

@ Anonymous Coward / Shipping Costs

"Do you take into account the time taken to package the item safely, drive to the post office or couriers etc etc. If that takes 30 mins or so then surely a business is entitled to charge you."

Don't know about non-US shippers, but the US Postal Service offers Click 'n Ship, which allows you to print a formatted address label including postage, and also offers free carrier pickup when your regular mail carrier delivers your mail. There are several million eBay and other shippers using it daily... they don't have to go to the post office, and all they need is an accurate scale, which they probably already have for those other carriers which charge for picking up their shipments. AND the USPS is probably cheaper for the little guys. Another bonus... with Click 'n Ship, you get FREE delivery confirmation and can add insurance up to $500.

My coat please... the postie's jacket...

Late Night Larry

California to snatch control of citizens' air-con

Larry Adams
Paris Hilton

@ Chris C

<< Has anybody actually thought of adding power capacity? Unless they outsource a large percentage of their workforce, the power requirements of the state are only going to grow over time. So invest in additional capacity and be ready for it instead of trying to cut back on usage now and being unprepared later. >>

There's been many proposals to add power capacity, but each one runs into a buzzsaw of eco/enviro-freaks who object to ANY development, even when it would save lives, such as improving roads to bring them up to the ability to safely handle the traffic that's already using them... I used to commute on a 10-mile long two lane stretch of road that carries in excess of 40,000 cars a day, but the state can't get a proposal to widen it to four lanes, with a divider, past the eco-freaks because widening it might kill a salt marsh harvest mouse, which can't be told from a common house mouse and might impact some brine shrimp on the edge of an abandoned salt pond. That stretch of two lane road was widely known as "Blood Alley" until the state put a barrier down the middle... a ten mile long barrier, so that if you get stuck behind someone doing 30 mph in a 50 year old VW Beetle, you literally have no legal or safe way of passing him, although I have seen cars pass on the shoulder a couple of times.. Oh, did I mention that there is water on both sides of the road for more than half its length?

Paris used because most of the eco-freaks are pure airheads.

Late Night Larry

Life is a Cabernet

Larry Adams
Paris Hilton

@ Scott

<< Instead of building natural gas or (gasp!) coal-fired power plants they just play politics with permits so only solar or wind can be built. Heck, they even grab my money away from me and throw it at solar and wind. Here, take it! And we still have power shortages. >>

Even when they build the wind turbines, most of them are kept shut down... I just returned from a long road trip, and we passed through two of the largest wind farms in the state (Tehachipi Mountains and Altamont Pass). Strictly a rough estimate, but it looked like about 80% of the wind turbines we saw in both farms were shut down (not turning) even though there was a decent wind in the area. It's been that way every time I've been through Altamont or the Tehachipis...

Paris icon used because this state government is about as airheaded as the blonde.

Late Night Larry

Life is a Cabernet

Surprise: Ohio's e-voting machines riddled with critical security flaws

Larry Adams
Coat

@ Steve Welsh

Seems to me that the motto "Vote Early, Vote Often" was used for Chicago under the first Mayor Daly.

Movie pirate forced to ditch Linux

Larry Adams

@ Leave the US

Just a reminder... For a US citizen, and I'm assuming sk0t is, to travel anywhere in the world, he must have a passport, or for Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean, be able to prove that he has applied for one... I'm not sure someone on probation is allowed to have a passport.

IMHO... sk0t should just shut up and stay off his computer until his probation is up...

LateNightLarry