|
I haven't even seen 22in of snow since the blizzard of '93 (southeastern US.) Part of me wants just one good snow; enough to build a snowman with the kids. After that, the novelty is gone and it can go away.
|
|
|
|
|
Funny thing about getting older:
You begin to prefer sand castles on the beach to snowmen on the lawn.
Ravings en masse^ |
---|
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
I saved a Word doc as a PDF last night. It took a while, because it automatically opens up the new PDF in Acrobat.
But, apparently, Adobe now wants you to be "connected" when using Acrobat. And they need your birthday, so they can be sure you don't accidentally see something age-inappropriate.
Excuse me?
|
|
|
|
|
Quote: so they can be sure you don't accidentally see something age-inappropriate. Probably Acrobatic Porn
|
|
|
|
|
I guess your considers this to be preventive "in sight".
Ravings en masse^ |
---|
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
|
|
|
|
|
GenJerDan wrote: And they need your birthday, so they can be sure you don't accidentally see something age-inappropriate.
So tell them you were born on January 1, spin the scroll wheel.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
|
|
|
|
|
I use the "Microsoft Print to PDF" when printing. It's silent (in my case).
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
|
|
|
|
|
I'm not sure if I used the Print TO or Save As. Either way, when it gets opened afterward (automatically, or manually), Acrobat will have done the same thing.
It's probably a one-time thing, once they get my personal info.
|
|
|
|
|
Just in case you don't need to sign down pdfs... SUMATRA PDF READER[^] is SUPER fast to open pdf files, lightweight as no other and works like charm.
|
|
|
|
|
My wife applied for a job last night. The application page wasn't bad at all. Nice clean layout, a simple process.
But then attempting to fill in her "Profile" for her account...
It would accept nothing but US-format telephone numbers. This is an international company...that won't accept international phone numbers.
Address? A dropdown pick list of countries that fills a picklist of "states" when a country is chosen. That worked fine.
But when you attempt to save, you get nothing but errors, saying "Country" must be United States. Despite being given the choice of every other country in the world.
I didn't dig into it to see where they're doing their page validation, but I'm assuming backend because the error message looked very SQLy.
|
|
|
|
|
I worked for a US company for years and was forever trying to get them to be more international. When they put phone numbers on the web pages they all had the 011 prefix which is the international access code: from the US. Dates were always mmddyy, and times were always AM/PM. And we had customers in most countries of the world.
|
|
|
|
|
Maybe there is a reason why they are looking for hiring someone
|
|
|
|
|
Well, if they hire her (Romanian/English two-way translator/interpreter), I'll see if they want an IT weenie, too.
|
|
|
|
|
I've had a number of sights not accept a standard email domain I've used for over a decade because it was .info . Generally, if I can, I email them an comment that they hired idiots to make their website. I also tell them I took my business elsewhere as a result of the snub.
Many years ago I was writing Point-of-Sale applications. When it expanded to Canada I allowed for Canadian zipcode formats. When they started to sell in Australia I took into account not only the multiple telephone number formats valid at the time but their round up/down to the nearest Aus$0.05 and allowed it to be reversible for recalcs of totals when necessary. And, in the USA, what is taxed (this was dry-cleaning software) varied by state, along with what's called "tagging" - which is how they tell different people's clothes apart when they're all cleaned in one big vat - it had to increment based on the particular system they chose. Added fun: credit card numbers were check-summed on the client side so monthly billings didn't fail from invalid entries.
Or, simply put - allow it to be as accommodating as possible for anyone expected to use it.
That type of development, it seems, went down the tubes when it seemed cheaper to outsource it. Even my current employer learned how that's not really cheaper and you then have the interesting status of "an outsider" having you by the short-hairs.
Ravings en masse^ |
---|
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
|
|
|
|
|
W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote: a number of sights
if that is not a tell about how you are feeling about it, nothing is.
|
|
|
|
|
In the 80s I worked for the European (UK-based) arm of a major US software vendor. Our remit was to take the application suite (GL, AR, AP, Order Entry) and add support for multiple languages, multiple currencies (including cross-currency transactions), alternative date formats and various flavours of European VAT. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun. Also included were multiple trips to US HQ to "learn about" the application. In practice we took it as opportunities to try and educate the US developers on how to write the app so that, if not international out of the box, at least straightforward to add international features to. The US developers were lovely folk, but consistently never really "got" the need to cater for anyone other than their domestic market. The company was eventually taken over by a larger competitor and the application suite dropped. Had it been cheaper to convert for the world market I suspect the outcome might have been different.
|
|
|
|
|
My "big money" bank stumbled around like that for years:
Computer "banking hours".
Mysterious telephone number formats.
Vague references to your "banking #" (is that branch, account, what?!)
A pre-approval process that takes 20 or 30 minutes but crashes and looses everything on the last entry.
What do bulls in china shops do? Anything they want.
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
|
|
|
|
|
|
The tax laws have become so complicated that no one - including the tax authorities - can reliably compute the taxes due except in the simplest of cases. Multinationals that have the ability to legitimately register profits in different locations take full advantage of this.
Given that the amount of taxes due is a matter of opinion, the only recourse is to go to court. This wastes time and money, the only beneficiaries being the lawyers.
The only way to restore certainty to tax computations would be a simultaneous, radical simplification of tax law worldwide. Don't hold your breath...
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
|
|
|
|
|
Daniel Pfeffer wrote: Don't hold your breath...
... Particularly since those who make the laws regularly take advantage of the confusion in order to not pay taxes either ...
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
|
|
|
|
|
Daniel Pfeffer wrote: radical simplification of tax law worldwide
Which needs to be voted by lawmakers, which have tight links to those running international business. I think the game is biased.
|
|
|
|
|
The Golden Rule, those that have the gold make the rules.
// TODO: Insert something here Top ten reasons why I'm lazy
1.
|
|
|
|
|
I hear what you're saying, but I also consider the net win of using tax law to incentivize desirable social behavior and discourage undesirable behavior in a way that's less onerous than having actual laws or fines.
For example, I can either pass a law to ban smoking, or I can tax it. Of the two options which is the most impositional?
Smoking is a simple example, but realistically there are probably a bunch more reasons I can find to do this kind of thing where it concerns the way businesses do business. For example businesses that benefit society get a tax incentive. Businesses that are a net drag on society (like payday lenders) in terms of overall costing us money, get taxed more, that sort of thing.
So simplification is one thing. I don't disagree with you that the tax codes have become onerous.
It's a big ball of mud and it's probably time for a rewrite. But I'm highly suspicious of flat tax schemes because I think the people proposing them the loudest simply want no financial penalties for costly social behavior.
Real programmers use butterflies
|
|
|
|
|
honey the codewitch wrote: using tax law to incentivize desirable social behavior and discourage undesirable behavior
Using taxation policy as an instrument of social policy is a major reason for the complexity of the tax law. It is also a major cause of unexpected consequences, and usually lags behind what is considered socially desirable (e.g. have tobacco subsidies in the US been repealed yet? )
honey the codewitch wrote: I'm highly suspicious of flat tax schemes because I think the people proposing them the loudest simply want no financial penalties for costly social behavior.
Yes, people should pay the full cost of their actions, but I have my doubts whether taxation is the correct way to do so. For example, sewage charges should reflect the cost of treatment, rather than merely the amount of sewage or some other criterion.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
|
|
|
|