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Who says the Singularity is reliant on ARTIFICIAL Intelligence?

AUGMENTED Intelligence is actually within our grasp: for example, look at the number of people who know how to Google / Wiki any information they don't know to get caught up with whatever subject is at hand? "Well, Damn, don't know much about RAID, better Wiki it... oh, I get it!"

How long until we figure out how to make pills to make people think faster, or remember better?

How long until we get PDAs in the form of sunglasses that will allow you to automatically get the definition of words as you hear / read them?

Or Contact Lense-displays that connect to a PDA that you control using your brain?

The Singularity is not going to be an all at once WHAMMO thing, we're not going to wake up with benevolent robotic overlords announcing that the Rapture of the Geeks is at hand. It will be gradual, and those of us on the techy side will likely not even notice it.

Computers will get faster, and as we learn how to augment ourselves, we will to. Eventually we'll be able to communicate with a PC/PDA directly. Meanwhile, things like RepRap will change our world in ways we're not quite ready for. (For example, I have no dobut that a functional RepRap would be a beautiful, amazing thing in the hands of Slashdot or the OSS Community. At the same time, the idea of 4Chan getting ahold of one fills me with Dread.)

For news from the UK accounting system, try Accounting web. Membership is free, and there is a newsletter you can subscribe to.

For a perspective from UK contractors, try Contractor UK and Shout 99.

Windows Server had 10% increase in units shipped while the market in whole only grew 5%. I know a couple companies that replaced their sun web servers with windows 2003 and IIS6. Lot cheaper to maintain, you can pay some college kid $10/hr to take care of them instead of $100/hr for a consultant. Also considering Windows 2003 web server edition is only ~$375, the initial cost is nothing for a business compared to labor costs.

The UK also passed legislation to deal with "tax avoidance" employment schemes:

IR35 was introduced to deal with the "employee in disguise" concept, where someone who left their job on Friday as a permanent employee, could return on Monday as a consultant employed as a director within their own limited company.

There is also Section 660 which was intended to deter self-employed people from setting up their own companies with other family members as employees (in particular husband and wife partnerships), and paying them salaries for minimal work which reduce the original tax band for the main worker.

The real problem is that there are different levels of taxation depending upon the type of employment. If everything were taxed at the same rate, then there wouldn't be any problem with how people were employed.

The UK also passed legislation to deal with "tax avoidance" employment schemes:

IR35 was introduced to deal with the "employee in disguise" concept, where someone who left their job on Friday as a permanent employee, could return on Monday as a consultant employed as a director within their own limited company.

There is also Section 660 which was intended to deter self-employed people from setting up their own companies with other family members as employees (in particular husband and wife partnerships), and paying them salaries for minimal work which reduce the original tax band for the main worker.

The real problem is that there are different levels of taxation depending upon the type of employment. If everything were taxed at the same rate, then there wouldn't be any problem with how people were employed.

he also had Glaucoma due to prolonged screen use

The only reason you'd want to incorporate is to be more readily able to pass as a business rather that posing as yourself, and subvert any visa related work laws by entering into a direct corp to corp agreement rather than falling into an IR35 contract situation. The fundamental difference is of classification.
Rather than being "hired" as a contractor, you are selling a service under international trade. By law all you'd be liable for is whatever taxers owed under the country of your incorporation and current citenship and what ever trade tarrifs applied (tarrifs are usually imposed on goods not services) That's pretty much all I feel qualified to tell you with any degree of confidence.

It is possible to immigrate to a country, though how I'm not certain yet as I have no real knowledge there. And it is possible to incorporate in other countries without being a resident and that incorporation can acquire properties and a base of operation in that country. Thus, you could be a US citizen, but live abroad -- having a wife and kids in the mix might make things more difficult, since without first immigrating to a new country, you'd have to keep making sure everyone's visas got restamped periodically to maintain an active visitor status and avoid deportation (which would be sure to piss both your client and wife off). The laws surrounding that are diverse, and once again... I'm not qualified to be authoritative on that matter.

So here's a couple links to get you started in your research:
General UK Contracting over view
You should read this as being the "contracting agency" not the contractor. It gives a good picture of what it means to contract in the UK and most of Europe as well as Taiwan since most the labor laws in those places are similar.

A basic summary of IR35 regulations

Some links to further docs regarding IR35 Some handy need to know stuff.

As you can see, contractors are fairly regulated there (I've heard many wanting to come to America where it's less regulated). So as you can see, not being a "person" who contracts but being a business entity which sells a consulting service avoids much of the tax confusion that would ensue

Anyway, I hope that helped.
One thing you might want to consider is residence swapping.
I plan on picking destinations and swapping my loft for an apt in the UK or Germany for 2-3 month periods to avoid the cost of hotels or having to sign a lease on a place only to find out it's not going to work out (I haven't done this work abroad thing myself). Basically, my goal is to start small and uncommited, get a feel for it and start working bigger.

Hope that helps.

The only reason you'd want to incorporate is to be more readily able to pass as a business rather that posing as yourself, and subvert any visa related work laws by entering into a direct corp to corp agreement rather than falling into an IR35 contract situation. The fundamental difference is of classification.
Rather than being "hired" as a contractor, you are selling a service under international trade. By law all you'd be liable for is whatever taxers owed under the country of your incorporation and current citenship and what ever trade tarrifs applied (tarrifs are usually imposed on goods not services) That's pretty much all I feel qualified to tell you with any degree of confidence.

It is possible to immigrate to a country, though how I'm not certain yet as I have no real knowledge there. And it is possible to incorporate in other countries without being a resident and that incorporation can acquire properties and a base of operation in that country. Thus, you could be a US citizen, but live abroad -- having a wife and kids in the mix might make things more difficult, since without first immigrating to a new country, you'd have to keep making sure everyone's visas got restamped periodically to maintain an active visitor status and avoid deportation (which would be sure to piss both your client and wife off). The laws surrounding that are diverse, and once again... I'm not qualified to be authoritative on that matter.

So here's a couple links to get you started in your research:
General UK Contracting over view
You should read this as being the "contracting agency" not the contractor. It gives a good picture of what it means to contract in the UK and most of Europe as well as Taiwan since most the labor laws in those places are similar.

A basic summary of IR35 regulations

Some links to further docs regarding IR35 Some handy need to know stuff.

As you can see, contractors are fairly regulated there (I've heard many wanting to come to America where it's less regulated). So as you can see, not being a "person" who contracts but being a business entity which sells a consulting service avoids much of the tax confusion that would ensue

Anyway, I hope that helped.
One thing you might want to consider is residence swapping.
I plan on picking destinations and swapping my loft for an apt in the UK or Germany for 2-3 month periods to avoid the cost of hotels or having to sign a lease on a place only to find out it's not going to work out (I haven't done this work abroad thing myself). Basically, my goal is to start small and uncommited, get a feel for it and start working bigger.

Hope that helps.

The only reason you'd want to incorporate is to be more readily able to pass as a business rather that posing as yourself, and subvert any visa related work laws by entering into a direct corp to corp agreement rather than falling into an IR35 contract situation. The fundamental difference is of classification.
Rather than being "hired" as a contractor, you are selling a service under international trade. By law all you'd be liable for is whatever taxers owed under the country of your incorporation and current citenship and what ever trade tarrifs applied (tarrifs are usually imposed on goods not services) That's pretty much all I feel qualified to tell you with any degree of confidence.

It is possible to immigrate to a country, though how I'm not certain yet as I have no real knowledge there. And it is possible to incorporate in other countries without being a resident and that incorporation can acquire properties and a base of operation in that country. Thus, you could be a US citizen, but live abroad -- having a wife and kids in the mix might make things more difficult, since without first immigrating to a new country, you'd have to keep making sure everyone's visas got restamped periodically to maintain an active visitor status and avoid deportation (which would be sure to piss both your client and wife off). The laws surrounding that are diverse, and once again... I'm not qualified to be authoritative on that matter.

So here's a couple links to get you started in your research:
General UK Contracting over view
You should read this as being the "contracting agency" not the contractor. It gives a good picture of what it means to contract in the UK and most of Europe as well as Taiwan since most the labor laws in those places are similar.

A basic summary of IR35 regulations

Some links to further docs regarding IR35 Some handy need to know stuff.

As you can see, contractors are fairly regulated there (I've heard many wanting to come to America where it's less regulated). So as you can see, not being a "person" who contracts but being a business entity which sells a consulting service avoids much of the tax confusion that would ensue

Anyway, I hope that helped.
One thing you might want to consider is residence swapping.
I plan on picking destinations and swapping my loft for an apt in the UK or Germany for 2-3 month periods to avoid the cost of hotels or having to sign a lease on a place only to find out it's not going to work out (I haven't done this work abroad thing myself). Basically, my goal is to start small and uncommited, get a feel for it and start working bigger.

Hope that helps.