Can I sell my architecture images on Zazzle without property releases? Like shots of random buildings taken from the sidewalk in downtown Madrid. I asked Zazzle, but they never responded.

Quote from: cuppacoffee on September 15, 2011, 07:30

Why is healthcare in the US so expensive? Here is a good synopsis -
http://moneyland.time.com/2010/02/25/why-is-health-care-so-expensive-let-us-count-the-conspirators/
The bullet points are -
Insurance Companies are businesses
No electronic records
Perverse incentives
Malpractice madness
Statistics
Premium pricing in the ER
We're fat
We take more pills
No shopping across state lines
What do I owe

And lobbyists pouring big bucks into their political coffers
And party line ideologies (Libs vs. indep vs conservs)
And ignoring constituent voice
And too many regulations
And too many singular political beliefs pushing theirs on the masses
And block and tackle to resolve the real barriers to a robust, cost effective system (tort reform)

Just sayin.

Tort reform? Thirty-eight states already have some form of it in place, and my state is one of them. The price of my health care does not seem to be that much cheaper because of it, though. But we do seem to have attracted a lot of doctors. Of course, an individual can't sue their doctor for more than $750,000 if they do something wrong. Like chop off a leg wrong, if I understood it correctly.

If I would have stayed in the government health insurance me and my wife (she is also working) would probably have to pay $1400 a month here in Germany. So I decided to go privately and we are down to around $900 together. But at least the coverage is pretty good. It is amazing how expensive insurance is if you are are self-employed.

Fourteen hundred a month? How much do other countries who have government health care pay per month? Personally, I do not mind private health care. As long as it is fairly priced, and the insurance company can not drop me when I become ill. But I am still reasonably young and healthy, so my health care is reasonably cheap ($140 a month). I am under no illusions that it will continue to be affordable as I age. The only question is which will be more affordable and beneficial? A government health care plan or a for profit one? If the government plan is more beneficial, then I am going to vote for that one. And vice versa. I do not have any issues with socialism when it comes to health care. Especially, health care for critical issues like a failing organ or something along those lines.

Right now this is what the new US health care law does.

Pre-existing conditions can no longer disqualify someone from insurance.
You can not be dropped anymore if you become ill.
Annual limits have been abolished.
Mandatory insurance. If an individual earns around $14,700 or more a year then they must purchase insurance. If you earn under that, then you are put on Medicaid. Add a few thousand dollars to that $14,700 for each additional family member. So a family of four with one person working and earning $20,000 a year would be put on Medicaid if I understand it correctly. This starts in 2014. You will be fined if you do not bother buying health insurance after 2014. Until then, it does not matter.
The donut hole for seniors is slowly closing. This makes some medications cheaper.
It allows young adults under 26 to stay on their parents plan.
Companies with over 50 full time employees have to buy health care plans for them in the future. Though, they are currently receiving waivers from the government to delay implementation of this part of the law.
And it goes on and on. It's long and complex, but I think I got most of it right. And the mandatory insurance bit could be repealed by the Supreme Court.
The parts of this new health care law that I like are the abolition of annual limits, and the fact that my health care company can not drop me anymore. I'm indifferent to the mandatory insurance.


I think health care in the US should go something like this.

One plan for critical issues that goes into effect the day you are born.
You can never be dropped from this plan.
Everyone with an income level (including investments) would pay into this plan. Use a flat tax if you like.
Healthy individuals can use this plan for one doctor visit per year; more visits than this for a healthy person will come out of their own pocket or other insurance plan.
As we age or become critically ill, more doctor visits would be allowed.
You can never be dropped from the plan.
Certain types of screenings are covered. Like preventative type items for cancer and whatnot.
Medication that exceeds an individual's ability to pay are covered.
Dental covered to some degree.

Quote

but I don't think it should be free.

You don't think healthcare should be free? Why is that? I'd consider it a basic right, along with education. But of course we're all commies here in Europeland ;-)

Agreed, but health care in Europe and elsewhere in the world is not free. It is paid for through taxes. Unless you are poor, of course. I wish everybody would stop saying it is free. It seems that it may be cheaper and more reliable than the private insurance companies we Americans use, though.

Not a huge deal, but a fax is more secure than email.  The fax goes through the telephone network and is sent directly from you to your recipient, where the bits of an email are transmitted through a number of intermediate networks.  Unless you encrypt the contents of the email, which hardly anyone does, it would be possible for your information to be seen by a nefarious third party.  Not likely, but not zero probability either. 

So there are good reasons for people to keep using fax machines.  I have one as part of my multifunction fax/scanner/printer.  One of my better purchases.

I was wondering about this. So what about "online faxing"? Is this as safe as traditional faxes, or is it no safer than sending an email?

Other than iStockphoto being down about seventy percent, everything else is average. I think I will put most of my Alaska pictures on Alamy as RM, though.

So what seems to sell best out of curiosity? For me, it's magnets and posters.

The Comprehensive 1099 Taxpayer Protection and Repayment of Exchange Subsidy Overpayments Act of 2011 was repealed on 4/14/2011.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h112-4


Buy yeah, I don't think this affects the 200 transactions and 20K limit for Paypal.

I like it.  It is almost as slick and fast as Chrome, but I am not seeing the bugs and compatibility issues I run into with Chrome.  Like any browser change, it takes time to get comfortable with where everything is.  It looks like a big winner to me and I just made it my Default Browser (was Chrome).

I do not know if you realize this, but you can move the icons wherever you want them to be. Go to the orange Firefox button (top left), then rollover options and click on "toolbar layout". You can drag and drop icons you do not want, or just move them where you want them to be. Just click and drag.

Just wondering. I never do.

Quote from: cclapper on February 10, 2011, 18:28

I just looked at your site and I don't see anywhere where that would be possible. In fact, I signed up for a free account and I didn't see anything in the creation of that account, either. That's weird. To get to the direct request, they would have to know the workings and names of the PhotoStore pages, no?

Thanks for taking a look. I didn't know if I was missing something. I guess they could either know the structure or taken an educated guess. I emailed them to see what they did. Hopefully, I get a response back. Also, I have to approve contributors, so it wasn't like they started uploading files. Regardless, I removed the php file, so no more backdoor. It makes me wonder if I should clean house on the other files that I'm not using.

Perhaps they just did a Google search, and stumbled across it by accident?

@Whiz
To make the search term type a default you will need to edit the search_bar.php file.
You will see this:

Code: [Select]

<select name="match_type">  <option value="all" <?PHP if($_SESSION['search_match_type'] == "all"){ echo "selected"; } ?>><?PHP echo $search_match_all; ?></option>
<option value="any" <?PHP if($_SESSION['search_match_type'] == "any"){ echo "selected"; } ?>><?PHP echo $search_match_any; ?></option>
<?PHP if($setting->hide_id != 1){ ?>
<option value="id" <?PHP if($_SESSION['search_match_type'] == "id"){ echo "selected"; } ?>><?PHP echo $search_match_id; ?></option>
<?PHP } ?>
<option value="exact" <?PHP if($_SESSION['search_match_type'] == "exact"){ echo "selected"; } ?>><?PHP echo $search_match_exact; ?></option>
</select>
Right above that code put in this:

Code: [Select]

<?PHP
if(!$_SESSION['search_match_type']){
$_SESSION['search_match_type'] = "exact";
}
?>
That should make it so that when a new visitors visits, the search type is set to exact to start with.

In case this helps anybody (copy and paste):


<select name="match_type">
<option value="exact" <?PHP if($_SESSION['search_match_type'] == "exact"){ echo "selected"; } ?>><?PHP echo $search_match_exact; ?></option>
<option value="any" <?PHP if($_SESSION['search_match_type'] == "any"){ echo "selected"; } ?>><?PHP echo $search_match_any; ?></option>
 <?PHP if($setting->hide_id != 1){ ?>
<option value="id" <?PHP if($_SESSION['search_match_type'] == "id"){ echo "selected"; } ?>><?PHP echo $search_match_id; ?></option>
<?PHP } ?>
<option value="all" <?PHP if($_SESSION['search_match_type'] == "all"){ echo "selected"; } ?>><?PHP echo $search_match_all; ?></option>
</select>

I like the fairy best too. I would change the, I don't know what to call this, the "magic power lines" that surround the fairy. Just do away with them, and in my opinion, it would vastly improve the illustration. The wings could be enhanced a bit like cthoman said.