HN user
Note one of the comments to the article at the bottom quotes Kurt Vonnegut:
"Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before. He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way." http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/3786
That gets to the crux of the matter doesn't it.
If your morals are based on principle, then no matter who the person was, your decision would remain the same.
I believe/hope that I am the type of person who would not take anothers' life no matter what the circumstances because I want to be a person of principle. If there were some situation where I did take a life, then I am not the principled person I think I am.
Take the example of Google and their motto,'Don't be Evil'. It was a nice bit of marketing, but when the value of doing business with a repressive government was high enough, they and other company's apparently had no problems working with said governments to continue the repression of it's citizens.
Now, you may say, Google has left that country. But, it was not due to the moral repugnance they felt about repressing the citizens, but the fact they were under attack by agents/citizens of said government and felt it was no longer in their interest 'financially' to stay.
I bought a LaserJet 4P when it was new for about $1,000
I know it seems like a lot, but like many of HP's products back then, it is bullet proof. Sure it's not very fast, but it prints text well and I replace the toner cartridge every 2 to 3 years.
I've had friends and family go through several printers in a row due to cheaper built quality. When we returned one (a HP inkjet, iirc) to the store, I asked if they send them back to the manufacturer. I was told it was not cost effective to do. They threw it away and gave us a new one.
If I do ever decide to buy a color printer, I think I'd go with Canon as some of my more technical friends have had good experience with them and Canon is not so anally retentive about 3rd party ink.
From the article:
"Don’t be discouraged by the questions on your non-existent military background – their banking services are available to all. Select no on all the military questions, hit submit, and you will be banking with the best bank in the US (for now)."
When my wife and I became engaged, she wanted to choose her own ring. Since I was leaving on a business trip, we agreed on a ballpark price range and she went looking.
While she likes diamonds, they are not her favorite gem stone. She ended up buying a very nice emerald ring with much smaller diamonds channel set on either side.
So when an anniversary approached, and I want to give her a bracelet, earrings, or some such item, diamonds don't even come into consideration.
While I don't preach my view to others, I have been asked a few times about gift ideas by other guys. I try to steer them away from diamonds, endeavoring to explain the scam for what it is.
This account reminds me of a company manager who oversaw their external printing jobs. He would visit different printery/bindery operations, not your kinko's sized stuff, but large Lith-o-man type offset presses.
He said he had all different types of metrics he used when evaluating a potential vendor for his jobs. But what it usually all boiled down to was how clean was the press area.
If the presses and surrounding area were grimy and tools, supplies etc. were scattered about, he knew the jobs they did would most likely not meet his expectations.
If however the area was clean and the press operators keeps things in order, he could count on that vendor to produce a superior product.
On my HP48X rpn calculator I get = 0
The HP35 scientific calculator also give 0 as an answer.
wierd.
My Anecdotal experience:
I need a new iPod cable and as I was at my local shopping center, I decided to check at Circuit City. I expected the price to be ~$10.00 but the prices was $24.99
I checked with amazon when I got home. I was able to buy a 3 pack, regular cable, car charger cable and 110v outlet cable for $8.00 including shipping.
It's not a mystery why retailers are suffering when you see price gouging like that.