When you have a net that is in the red, no, it's very bad. Even breaking even is bad because you still lose net wealth due to inflation. And especially when you are talking about taking that money and putting it into some jobs program when the original intention was to pay it back once it was returned.

Speaking of which, I vote that if Obama actually takes the money that was supposed to be paid back and spends it, he is no longer allowed to ***** about Bush's administration's deficit spending.

GSM is the 2G technology used by AT&T/Cingular and others. It has all but been replaced in the last couple years.

Coming from a verizon motorola smartphone to an iPhone on AT&T and then breaking that and going to a Blackberry 9000 on AT&T. I wish I had been on AT&T with a blackberry the whole time. The iPhone was nice and the apps are killer - the whole thing was so nicely integrated, but there was always something lacking in the day-to-day stuff I use like the planner and contacts folder that the blackberry is perfect on.

not to mention you can tether a blackberry right off and you have to hack the iPhone to do so. I get internet on my laptop all over...

The one thing I love about AT&T I never realized was the case until my buddy was confused how I looked up yellowpages while on the phone with my mom was that Verizon cannot simultaneously do data and voice. AT&T can. And while AT&T has severely spotty 3G coverage, it's the fastest when you get it and AT&T actually has 2.5G networks called their edge network that is just as fast as Verizon's 3G so coverage is not an issue. I also have data coverage far more than my girlfriend with her verizon phone though her voice range seems to be better.

I'd say go AT&T. You may not need the blackberry or anything, but data on at&t is far better than it ever was on Verizon for me.

Bust for me... on my 2GB, my 16GB, and my passport HD.

I'm just going to deal until I get my mac in the spring (If they announce new MacBook Pros... my scholarship group voted to wait and see... hoping for an i7) and then use bootcamp to do XP 64bit and OSX until they release a service pack for 7 pro. Then, my little netbook can have Ubuntu all to itself. as for my desktop... i have no idea.

I know I can install ubuntu now, run wine and run setup from the unpacked ISO, but that's too much work for me when I can't risk not having this laptop during finals week. maybe i'll take a stab this weekend on the desktop.

To be honest and defend her a little (but by no means defending her qualifications to be VP) there was a lot of legal bulls**t that came after the elections against her office, the vast majority of which was thrown out. There was only one case before the courts when she was nominated, IIRC, there were over three dozen in the last year and 99% of them were almost instantly thrown out. Truthfully though, I feel that she quit so she could do this book gig and go into permanent campaign mode.

There was a lot of bulls**t because many on the left were afraid of her. After all, the democrats were supposed to be the proressives to put a woman in one of the nation's highest offices.

The irony is that they had no reason to be afraid. She made it abundantly clear she was not able to grasp the magnitude of the office very early on IMO and while she was extremely popular as a governor, VP is a slightly larger responsibility she was not ready for.

Blaming everyone else (the last guy).... taking no responsibility for your self and your situation...

why does that sound so familiar?

Well I run IE8, Firefox, and Safari whateverthef*ck version they're on. I'm a web developer on the side and have to test on the primary browsers. If it flies on Firefox, it's good on just about anything... except IE. Rarely do I have safari/firefox compatibility issues, but i have to recode for IE a lot and hope it sticks on the other two.

Safari is by far my favorite, but I like the speed of firefox on a pc compared to safari and the add-ons you can have.

welcome to my world...

I love how everyone makes fun of her calling her stupid, but they they act completely immature and low-class by doing something like this.


To be honest, I think the left is scared of her. She's a woman and she is the perfect example of the modern Republican's party ideals (unfortunately, not the old, good republican party ideals). If she didn't matter, they wouldn't spend so much time bashing her and trying to hold her down.

yeah, it's the most recent security update. avoid it until they fix the problem.

The thing is the science is not exact. Yeah, a computer-generate model sounds all well and good, but garbage in, garbage out.


I can't wait until they start putting smog regulations on cars for CO2. That will mean the only things that come out of a car that are not regulated will be oxygen and water. However, the more CO2, the better combustion is. If you limit it, you will necessarily have to increase CO and HC gasses... the ones you REALLY want to keep low.

That, is exact science.

Ah, until recently (like two weeks ago recently) I was doing 50 hours a week minimum and 12-16 units a quarter including summer session. It was really taking a toll on my body, especially since I drive 45 miles to school four days (next quarter five and occasionally six) days a week.


I believe that our ideals and beliefs are what defines us. We are all individuals of different backgrounds, shapes, sizes, and colors that are all out of our control. Our beliefs and ideals are what we control that define us. I believe the way I do because it is fair. Nobody has the decision of the conditions they are born into and they should not be forced into helping everyone else for something out of their control. Sometimes the draw is pocket aces, sometimes it's an off-suit deuce-three. You have to play with what you have. The thing is, life is just like playing hold'em. your deal is your background, where you are born into; the cards on the table are life. pocket aces by all means gives you a great start, but does not mean that the draw on the table won't be a couple more deuces and a three and you get beat by the guy at the bottom.


The free market works if the people demand it to. Society today has become too reliant on the government with all the welfare and social programs that they demand they help them, not the system. If people were more aware of their purchasing and the media did their real job exposing corruption, we would not need government regulation.

It all comes down to personal responsibility. I want to ween ourselves from the government by forcing people to be responsible for themselves.


However, on the lines of the healthcare debate... I understand it needs drastic measures, but ironically, it is regulation that is keeping competition down. I recall an article about how they limit the number of new doctors. Tort reform is a start to reduce malpractice insurance, but I know it will only be a small percentage in the scheme of things. The big one to me is competition across state lines. That one I know will bring down costs as the larger companies like Blue Cross and Kaiser may then combine into one main location, reducing overhead.

You see, that is the primary reason that a private insurance company has higher costs than medicare - medicare only operates out of a few locations, blue cross has to have a full corporate organization in almost every state. If that could be combined into one, yeah, you'd lose a lot of jobs, but it would be real free market activity and the costs would dramatically decrease.

I know that I preach no regulation, because truthfully, in an ideal world, you would not need it. However, I just attempt to neutrailze the situation to a middle ground where it works best in reality between myself and those that want full government control.


So I guess what I'm saying with all this is that in the end, you have yourself. I think that is made up of your ideals and your honor (through your actions). If I give up what I believe, I feel like I lose a part of myself.

It's far better than Vista ever was so if you're coming from there, it may not seem so bad. I just don't need all the frills and crap that they put in to make it more "user friendly" and visually pleasing - I prefer the solid base that was XP. I mean, XP was the first version of windows I never found myself reloading every six months. Once I added Deep Freeze and started putting all my files on a server or portable drive, it was always rediculous fast, even on my netbook running AI, Photoshop, and Dreamweaver at the same time.... with a 1.6 processor and 1GB ram.

Truthfully, there's nothing wrong with it provided everyone acts accordingly. But like you said, many of them never did their taxes and verifying people have paid SS and medicare is difficult for the feds to do.

believe me, our tax code could use some simplification, like starting with just taking the SS and medicare and the like from the federal income tax as opposed to doing it separately. It will cut down on people dodging it too.

XP was great and 7 looked promising, but it's just not ready yet. i guess i shouldn't be that surprised. I waited until SP1 before I got onto the XP bandwagon.

My next computer will be Mac through no choice of my own. I get one through school and I'll actually get a chance to use one daily now - before it was just fixing them when they break. Who knows, maybe I'll convert lol.

I was an accounting major, remember lol. Yes, I know what a 1099 is. I'll be getting a couple this year for photography work i did before i disolved the business. I'm totally aware of the repurcussions, like paying your own SS and Medicare taxes (for both parties so it actually doubles). The 1099 benefits the company every time, but it was really designed for contracted work, not full-time employees. either way, it's not cheating the system, but it does hurt the employees.

and truthfully, If I worked for a company that 1099'd me, but made, say, $35,000 and worked for nobody else, I'm legally an employee of that company and they have to pay their share of medicare and the like as if they paid me normally. This was designed to keep people from doing just that above.

between one and six. more if it's some minimum wage gig for all the employees.

This is on two systems and one is a very capable system that I use for nothing but photo editing and maintenance. I figured, what the hell because I know the system is up for it. The other is my netbook. both ran XP like a champ and now I have to backup a terabyte of data and reload my photo editing desktop because it's crashing photoshop all the time. I really need to update my server, but it's only got 500MB of space and it's setup for LAMP stuff. When I get around to it, I'll have a 4TB server that is setup to do both web and file storage.

I know that nobody is claiming it to be perfect, but it's missing the greatest points that will increast competition and reduce prices: there is no lift on the state-to-state selling (unless i've been misinformed, very possible) and there is no tort reform. Those two alone will lower prices dramatically.

The fact they call this a step is what scares me, because all that's left after the government enters the market is total takeover of the system. They are literally doing everything at once and saying it's a step because they know this is their only shot at getting it all in. The midterms are coming up and they know there is no presidential vote on the ballot in order to bring out the minorities and youth like last time.


EDIT
oh, and the fact they say a lot of the funding will come from savings. SO WHY THE HELL AREN'T WE SAVING NOW!

Two reasons (and neither contradict my beliefs).
1. It is a means to an end. the market for guys like me is small and therefore, things need to be done to get those kind of people into the position. This is completely a free market action. I'm not taking anything for free, I'm essentially receiving training for my career before it starts. Getting free schooling at Cal State and a stipend is pretty nice and allows me to concentrate on studies and not work at the same time.

2. To me, the federal government has but a few purposes that states and communities cannot, one of which is national defense and that is where I'll be working, likely NSA or a similar organization doing data security.


I agree that the fear-mongering needs to stop. It may seem like I'm far to the right with the loonies right now, but that is simply because the plan to me is far to the left. If the plan was about tort reform and removing competition restrictions, I'd be so for it your head would spin. The government does not "compete," the government regulates. Being in the market will allow them to be a price ceiling because they never have to be in the black. I realize that many do not think baby steps will work, but groundwork needs to be laid before you can build a building. I have to be methodical in my decisions, I feel the government should too.




I don't like unemployment and I still don't. If you don't think that you are paying for unemployment, you're fooling yourself. We all pay it through higher prices everywhere we shop.


and fyi, my arguments here will have nothing to do with my security clearance. i'm not trying to overthrow anyone (far from it), I'm simply trying to make it more efficient and fair.

Ok, I've been having pretty good luck with this OS over the last week. However, this weekend has not been so kind. I've so far crashed half a dozen apps on more than one occasion and received my second BSOD today. I'm raging pissed.

Failed so far...
*Photoshop CS (more times than I can count)
*Illustrator CS
*Adobe Lightroom
*Word 2007 (three times now... and autosave is not worth a damn I found out)
*IE8 crashes on a regular basis since I did that last security update
*Even in My Computer it crashes!

Not to mention that I am occasionally getting the BLACK screen of death where it does not load my desktop and I have to ghetto my way to getting one and load it all manually.

I'm so done with all this crap. I never had any of these issues on XP and I'm going back as soon as all my assignments are done and I can find my external CD drive... unless someone knows how to install XP from a usb stick or external hd. i'm all ears.