[thelist] MSN locks out non IE browsers

[Andrew Forsberg]

>  > From: Brian King
>>
>>  Legally, I believe you will find that a business is
>>  obligated to make their product available to anyone
>  > who tenders legal currency,
>
>ianal, but i believe you're wrong on this assumption.  a business can choose
>to not perform a transaction with anybody they want to.  they're not
>obligated simply because the consumer has legal currency and wants to
>perform a transaction of some sort.

OMG! You're right. Perhaps NZ law is different, or my high school 
economics teacher was the goon I always thought he was:

http://www.snopes2.com/business/money/penny.htm

>U.S. currency and coins can be used for making payments, but a 
>debtor does not have to pay in legal tender, nor does a creditor 
>have to accept legal tender.

The stuff you learn when you go way OT.

<tip type="amortization with PHP">
In case anyone else has to muddle their way through calculating 
amortization with php, here's my rendering of the French system. The 
French system gives results identical to my HP financial calculator, 
so it can't be too far out of whack. If you're interested in a 
different system, have a look over: 
http://www.geocities.com/WallStreet/Floor/5390/English.html

// $interest_rate needs to be in its decimal representation
// (e.g. 0.0 to 1.0 == 0% to 100%)
$interest_rate = $interest_rate / 100;
$loan_interest_per_payment = $interest_rate / $loan_payments_per_term;

$loan_installment = (($loan_amount * pow(1 + 
$loan_interest_per_payment, $loan_payments)) * 
$loan_interest_per_payment);
$loan_installment = $loan_installment / (pow(1 + 
$loan_interest_per_payment, $loan_payments) - 1);

if ($interest_type == 'revolving')
{
	// only show the interest payments
	$loan_installment = (($loan_installment * $loan_payments) - 
$loan_amount) / $loan_payments;
}

Can you guess how much fun that was to work out? Shorter variable 
names might have been good, but at least I can see what's going on 
with those long_four_word_monsters.
</tip>
-- 
Andrew Forsberg
---
uberNET - http://uber.net.nz/
the pander - http://thepander.co.nz/