Posts by Lee Ward

Canadian runs up $85,000 mobe bill

@ AJ STILES

Posted Thursday 13th December 2007 18:09 GMT

So in Canada, you get sent a bill for mobile phone usage *after* the event, like a landline? That sounds like a recipe for disaster. And this story confirms it!

There are 2 main ways to have cell phone in Canada.

1) "Pay-as-you-go" works like a prepaid phone card. You put a specific amount of money, of your choosing, on the account and the phone works until that money is used up. You then put more money on the account and use it up. Like filling a gasoline/petrol tank.

2) A service just like a land line. This is commonly under various contracts where you get a specific price for each component. A possible common example would be: Evening and Weekend Local Calls For Free, 240 Minutes of daytime calling and unlimited text messaging for a monthly few. With a contract like that you would pay extra for anything outside of that list. e.g. over 240 minutes of daytime calling.. web browsing etc

Smart Parents use option 1 (pay as you go) for their kids.

People without the brains to keep track of their usage or the desire to fully understand their contract usually pick option 1.

Businesses and people who have a handle on their expenses use option 2

Obviously the "I can't read a contract" guy in this case, should have chosen option 1

ok ok ok fine.. he's a loser......

...though I still say 22 yrs old means you're a kid ;)

Canadian ?

The recent science tests from the Organisation for Economic Development (OECD) ranked Canada 3rd in the world, the UK 14th ( (1) possibly due to taking the test in a pub) and the USA 29th ( (2) likely due to the fact that everything in the USA is done by a nice invisible being)

Other Categories:

Literacy

Canada 2nd

UK 7th

USA 15th

Math

Canada 6th

UK 8th

USA 19th

http://www.siteselection.com/ssinsider/snapshot/sf011210.htm

Surely this kid* just recently moved to Canada from the UK, USA or more likely Brazil ?

*he evidently lives at home so he's either a kid or a loser. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt

Cheers !

I use Paris as my icon because she's a good example of not using your brain.

*(1)http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/02/booze_teens/

*(2)http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071208-more-shots-fired-in-the-war-on-science.html

German Wikipedia attacked over Nazi symbolism

WTF ?

"Her primary concern was that images could be easily re-purposed because they were online rather than in books."

How can someone. in Government, be so clueless ?

Oh... wait.... nevermind.

Wigan man traps todger in metal ring

that explains.....

where the euphemism.. "laying pipe"... comes from.

It's cold outside so need my parka and touque please.

(extra points for non-canucks who know what those are)

Microsoft kills Santa Claus

It's about time.. Santa is an evil pervert !!

1) Santa is an anagram for Satan

2) He focuses his attention on children

3) He dresses in red.. the colour of choice for commies !

4) He's a voyeuristic stalker ("sees you when you're sleeping he knows when you're awake")

5) Like all bad apple CEO's...he gets elves to do all the work while taking all the credit.

nuff said...

Gibson plugs in self-tuning roboguitar

@ Great news !

Hey Chris G.

It's been done.... in a way.....ever heard of "Guitar Hero" ?

Sellers price up 8GB Eee PC

@ Is the drive upgradable?

Would 8 gigs of storage and 2 gigs of ram do ?

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Add-Storage-and-Memory-to-Eee-PC-8G-SD-card-2G-RAM_W0QQitemZ200179777309QQihZ010QQcategoryZ99247QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Looks like upgrades will be easy

Being frugal, I figure I may buy a 4G unit in the late winter and upgrade it

Cheers

The Romantics sue Guitar Hero for sound-alike imitation

Guitar Hero ??

The Romantics should give Activision a 'real' version of the song so that people will be interested to buy the band's CD so they can get royalties from that. Use Guitar Hero as a marketing tool to sell their stuff to people who are either too young, or not from the part of the world who know who The Romantics are.

As a side note.... This Guitar Hero 'thing'....It's lost on me.

Here's a cool idea...

Why not buy an actual guitar for the same price as the game and learn to play for real ?

It seems the world is too lazy to bother learning real skills and start living their own life.

They seem to prefer, playing virtual Football (Soccer), Golf, Guitar etc. All the while pretending they can actually play decent football or play a guitar. It's weird IMO.

Turn off the TV and PC for bit each day....go outside and experience life for real.

The PH angle ? isn't it obvious ? ;)

Disability law can protect alcoholic workers

@ anonymous coward...

You state:

"It isn't surprising most people think alcoholics are wasters who should just quit - but tell that to the families of people who die from it."

Not only am i willing to post my name, unlike you and others, but my mom, in fact, "died from it".

My mom was an idiot. she could have quit had she admitted she drank too much, and made the choice to gradually stop... as many people do. but she didn't...she dead because of it.

Take it from a kid, who grew up with an alcoholic mom, and was the person by her bedside the moment she died with yellow skin.

Quit with the excuse of "it's an illness. Booo Hoooo I have no control !!!"

Quit fooling yourself.

Lee Ward

Rob Grant my end up being right.......

Do I have this right ?

>"The way it works is that you would have a recognized disability and >you would be covered by the Disability Discrimination Act, and that >would mean that an employer would be prevented from treating you >any less favourably and subjecting you to a detriment on the >grounds of your disability," she said.

So... if you can't do your job because you are a drunk, they can't just fire you ?

Forgive me if I'm wrong but I thought employers hired you to do a job... not to help with your personal issues like a social service agency.

"The Act is intended to protect people suffering from non-personally induced conditions whereas alcoholism is seen to be on the border,"

On the border ? WTF ?

Something is either personally induced or not. There is no "border"

You are not forced to gradually become an alcoholic.That process is "personally induced".

Disability ? Disease ? Last time I checked, you can always, if you really want to, with enough help and personal effort, stop drinking.

You sure as heck can't do that with paralysis or manic depression.

Yeah some people don't stop. My mom was an example of an alcoholic who always blamed someone else or came up with excuses. She never admitted to being an alcoholic, even up the day she died with a failed liver.

In the end it's up to YOU to deal with issues in your life. Not someone else. Your employer is not your caregiver.

@ Smell My Finger asks:

>Do you really think people should be left to live with the >consequences of what happened to them as a child?

Yes. Life happens. Get over it a move on. Anything else just gives a person excuses to not do so.

What the heck has happened to create this current PC "blame something/someone else" society !?

Both myself and my wife are from textbook, dysfunctional, broken, low income childhood homes. We take responsibility for our choices in life. We learnt from our childhood and don't use it as a crutch. We struggled through our problems and are now successful. We are sick of other adults blaming their past for their future.

While it's somewhat unrelated..... here is a quote from the Rob Grant's book, "Incompetence"

"Article 13199 of the Pan-European Constitution, “No person shall be prejudiced from employment in any capacity, at any level, by reason of age, race, creed or incompetence.” "

While Rob used this as the basis for a novel.....How long before this actually comes true ?

Lee

PS I used the PH icon because she represents IMO a perfect example of the lack of responsibility generation.

US man dies in Taser incident

An alternative to using lethal force...

Here in Canada, the PR department for the RCMP described the taser as an alternative to using lethal force

That makes sense....

Are you at the point were you would normally use use your firearm ? Use the taser as a better alternative.

The problem with tasers is... officers are using them as an alternative to a billy club, swift kick in the head, or some other way of subduing someone.

A retired RCMP officer friend believes that the the biggest problem today is that there is no longer a minimum size requirement for officers. Where a muscular 6 foot tall cop could easily deal with a situation, a small male or female would be scared and be more likely to use a taser or club. BTW... That same retired officer believes the morons in Vancouver were incompetent.

It's a matter of training...

Before using a taser... an officer should ask himself.... "Would I normally shoot this person ?".... if so.. use the taser.... otherwise use traditional methods.

The morons in Vancouver obviously were not trained correctly.

IMO the Taser is not the problem if used as it is intended.

(Then again... if an officer is in a situation were he/she believes it is time to pull your handgun. A shot to the knees won't kill, whereas a taser could. But that's another topic....)

Cheers.

Lee

PS I used Paris as my icon because I wish someone would do us all favour and incapacitate her.

International manhunt tracks pedophile suspect to Thailand

At the risk of being pedantic....

Contrary to the new crop of media hacks and other illiiterates... A Paedophile is someone who "loves, likes, or is attracted to" children, in the same way a Bibliophile is someone who "one that loves, likes, or is attracted to" books.

The term would actually apply to parents who are glad they procreated, doting grandparents, and anyone else who likes children.

The correct term for a sick bastige who needs his/her life to be spent in solitary.... is a "SEXUAL Paedophile"

and now......back to the regular programming

Lee

International media firm pays $3.5m over pirate software

Sampler...read it again...

it's the Business Software Alliance..... NOT the British Software Association.

Business Software Alliance (BSA) head office is in New York with it's European office in London and Asian office in Singapore

http://www.bsa.org/Contact%20BSA.aspx

as for the RIAA...

I can't see the RIAA having much use for Autodesk or Avid software but I am wrong fairly often.....

Lee.

Hmm.. maybe it was a PR arm of the Pastafarian Church and they were simply celebrating Talk Like A Pirate Day a bit early....

..having worked in the media at one time

I'd be willing to bet that the "single individual", was under pressure from the management to get the mentioned expansion done asap and with an unrealistic budget.

The media outlets I worked for all had software licence violations of one type or another, for similar reasons.

It can by very "tempting" to just install the apps as needed.

That doesn't condone it though.

Don't Autodesk and Avid still use dongles ?

If so... they had to do more than simply install the apps with the same registration code. A bit more... "intent"