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Former Microsoft Managers Now In Charge of Washington State's Budget
reifman writes "The Seattle Times reports, 'For the first time in state history, the Washington state budget is being written by Microsofties,' Representative Ross Hunter has 'tamed his Microsoft-style head-butting with a politician's trust-building.' Senator Andy Hill is 'the first Senate budget chair ever to request Excel files instead of paper spreadsheets.' 'The two must find $1 billion in new money for the state's K-12 system.' Unfortunately, The Times neglects to mention that Hunter and Microsoft are among those behind the deficit and cutbacks in the first place. Hunter helped pass the amnesty bill for Microsoft's $1.5 billion Nevada tax dodge ($4.37 billion if you include impacts from its lobbying to reduce tax rates) that contributed to $4 billion in cuts to K-12 and higher education since 2008. The state has resorted to using Yelp to tax dancing to try to make up the shortfall (for real)."
I'm not so worried about ex-Microsoft employees taking care of budget issues, but more worried about current employees of Google running in the senate and government positions. They are lobbying against nationwide surveillance and are pro-lessening privacy. Google employees and execs have been doing this for a few years now, and that is why were seeing so heavy legislate like CISPA and anti-piracy attacks.
Just hope they aren't using excel to do the budget.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23448-how-to-stop-excel-errors-driving-austerity-economics.html
Also, frist poot.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
It is a case of not 'bend over!?' but 'how far??'
* Breaking news: corrupt Slashdot administration attempted to ban me for blowing the whistle on their illegal activities, while not banning the criminal who stalks, harasses, and impersonates me. Whistleblower abuse is a federal felony. Lunatic Slashdot admin's have been owned by me in so many tech debates over the past decade that they conspire with criminals to effetely & vainly *try* to "hide" my posts and censor me. Jealousy at it's finest.
=> Lawsuit's and criminal prosecution against Slashdot are now inevitable. Moderation+posting records will be sequestered and anyone acting aginst me will be dealt with permanently.
Previous notice:
A corrupt slashdot luser has pentrated the moderation system to downmod all my posts while impersonating me.
Nearly 330++ times that I know of @ this point for all of March/April 2013 so far, & others here have told you to stop - take the hint, lunatic (leave slashdot)...
Sorry folks - but whoever the nutjob is that's attempting to impersonate me, & upset the rest of you as well, has SERIOUS mental issues, no questions asked! I must've gotten the better of him + seriously "gotten his goat" in doing so in a technical debate & his "geek angst" @ losing to me has him doing the:
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A.) $10,000 challenges, ala (where the imposter actually TRACKED + LISTED the # of times he's done this no less, & where I get the 330 or so times I noted above) -> http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3585795&cid=43285307
&/or
B.) Reposting OLD + possibly altered models - (this I haven't checked on as to altering the veracity of the info. being changed) of posts of mine from the past here
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(Albeit massively repeatedly thru all threads on /. this March/April 2013 nearly in its entirety thusfar).
* Personally, I'm surprised the moderation staff here hasn't just "blocked out" his network range yet honestly!
(They know it's NOT the same as my own as well, especially after THIS post of mine, which they CAN see the IP range I am coming out of to compare with the ac spamming troll doing the above...).
APK
P.S.=> Again/Stressing it: NO guys - it is NOT me doing it, as I wouldn't waste that much time on such trivial b.s. like a kid might...
Plus, I only post where hosts file usage is on topic or appropriate for a solution & certainly NOT IN EVERY POST ON SLASHDOT (like the nutcase trying to "impersonate me" is doing for nearly all of March/April now, & 330++ times that I know of @ least)... apk
P.S.=> here is CORRECT host file information just to piss off the insane lunatic troll:
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21++ ADVANTAGES OF CUSTOM HOSTS FILES (how/what/when/where/why):
Over AdBlock & DNS Servers ALONE 4 Security, Speed, Reliability, & Anonymity (to an extent vs. DNSBL's + DNS request logs).
1.) HOSTS files are useable for all these purposes because they are present on all Operating Systems that have a BSD based IP stack (even ANDROID) and do adblocking for ANY webbrowser, email program, etc. (any webbound program). A truly "multi-platform" UNIVERSAL solution for added speed, security, reliability, & even anonymity to an extent (vs. DNS request logs + DNSBL's you feel are unjust hosts get you past/around).
2.) Adblock blocks ads? Well, not anymore & certainly not as well by default, apparently, lol - see below:
Adblock Plus To Offer 'Acceptable Ads' Option
http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/12/12/2213233/adblock-plus-to-offer-acceptable-ads-option )
AND, in only browsers & their subprogram families (ala email like Thunderbird for FireFox/Mozilla products (use same gecko & xulrunner engines)),
I fully expect the budget of Washington State to BSOD.
or was this just a rhetorical question?
You decide.
Hopefully they do better with their Mortgage-backed Securities....
Select from tblFriends where interesting >= 4;
When the M$ mole infested Nokia, Nokia tanked
Sales tanked, share price tanked, everything tanked
Will Washington state be next ?
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
The state is stealing from ME to pay to educate other people, most of whom are fat lazy welfare queens and their dumb and ugly crotch fruit. Why the FUCK should the Galt's of the world be forced to pay for these leeches? Good on Microsoft for doing what they can to fight the liberal leftist welfare scam.
Take back america from obamacare and socialism. Ron Paul 2016!
The budget will be proprietary, only render correctly in Internet Explorer, and include Microsft Bob to help explain the loss of state revenue.
But isn't there something just a little wrong with the idea that there are morally no limits to what the State can extract from a for-profit corporation?
I realize Microsoft is a powerful corp, etc, etc, and that they can handle losing more more money to the State. That's not the point. I'm concerned about the relationship between the shareholders of Microsoft and the State. Who serves whom?
And you guys are somehow making this into a bad thing. It's laughable that apparently they've been using paper before.
Open up that checkbook, Bill.
b - hiring some politico's flunky as soon as they leave office to teach you how to reach the politico or to give you special access to former coworkers
c - hiring some politico when they leave office
Then, they figure out that instead of hiring at the end of the cycle, why not embed somebody in directly at the beginning of the cycle? Have current or recently current employees run for office, and also looking out for the best interests of their employer / former employer.
- decrease tax liability.
Next, they figure out how to do all of this at a lower cost. Easy ways to lower cost:
- - decrease taxes
- - increase credits for employment, etc
- increase profits
- - require your software to be purchased
- - make your software a de facto requirement for even transacting business with the government
- - make tax rules in your favor
Why pay for the hamsters to run on the wheel when you can own the hamsters yourself? [can you tell that ihashhasst? : i have a seventies hippy history and social-sciences teacher]
You have that exactly backwards.
You are welcome on my lawn.
In other words, the rich get to write the laws (or fund the writing of laws, wink, wink) that allow them to avoid taxes whilst the poor (or relatively poor-er) get told to pay higher taxes. Sounds like the republican platform has taken over all of washington state to me.
Well, if Microsoft doesn't like the taxes it has to pay there, it can easily go elsewhere. I don't see the big difference to a land owner demanding rent from anyone using the land.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Microsoft Kinect Spy System
THIS ARTICLE IS BEING SCRUBBED FROM THE NET. THE SITE IT WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED TO YANKED THE PLUG ON THEIR WHOLE SITE!!! COPY/PASTE THIS ARTICLE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE TO DISCUSSION FORUMS, BLOGS, FACEBOOK, TWITTER, AND ARCHIVE AND MIRROR THIS DOCUMENT SO IT DOES NOT VANISH FOREVER!
"So you just got the Kinect/Xbox360 gaming system and you're having fun, hanging out in your underwear, plopped down in your favorite lounge chair, and playing games with your buddies. Yeah, it's great to have a microphone and camera in your game system so you can "Kinect" to your pals while you play, but did you read that Terms of Service Agreement that came with your Kinect thingy? No? Here, let me point out an important part of that service agreement.
If you accept the agreement, you "expressly authorize and consent to us accessing or disclosing information about you, including the content of your communications, in order to: (a) comply with the law or respond to lawful requests or legal process; (b) protect the rights or property of Microsoft, our partners, or our customers, including the enforcement of our agreements or policies governing your use of the Service; or (c) act on a good faith belief that such access or disclosure is necessary to protect the personal safety of Microsoft employees, customers, or the public."
Did you catch that? Here, let me print the important part in really big letters.
"If you accept the agreement, you expressly authorize and consent to us accessing or disclosing information about you, including the content of your communications⦠on a good faith belief that such access or disclosure is necessary to protect the personal safety of Microsoft employees, customers, or the public."
OK, is that clear enough for ya? When you use the Kinect system, you agree to allow Microsoft (and any branch of law enforcement or government they care to share information with) to use your Kinect system to spy on you. Maybe run that facial recognition software to check you out, listen to your conversations, and keep track of who you are communicating with.
I know this is probably old news to some, but I thought I would mention it because it pertains to almost all of these home game systems that are interactive. You have to remember, the camera and microphone contained in your game system have the ability to be hacked by anyone the game company gives that ability to, and that includes government snoops and law enforcement agents.
Hey, it's MICROSOFT. What did you expect?
And the same concerns apply to all interactive game systems. Just something to think about if you're having a "Naked Wii party" or doing something illegal while you're gaming with your buddies. Or maybe you say something suspicious and it triggers the DHS software to start tracking your every word. Hey, this is not paranoia. It's spelled out for you, right there in that Service Agreement. Read it! Here's one more part of the agreement you should be aware of.
"You should not expect any level of privacy concerning your use of the live communication features (for example, voice chat, video and communications in live-hosted gameplay sessions) offered through the Service."
Did you catch it that time? YOU SHOULD NOT EXPECT ANY LEVEL OF PRIVACY concerning your voice chat and video features on your Kinect box."
###
"Listen up, you ignorant sheep. Your government is spending more money than ever to spy on its own citizens. That's YOU, my friend. And if you're one of these people who say, "Well I ain't ever done nothing wrong so why should I worry about it?' - you are dead wrong. Our civil liberties are being taken away faster than you can spit. The NSA is working away on its new "First Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cyber-security Initiative Data Center' to keep track of every last one of us. This thing will be the size of 17 football stadiums. One million square feet, all to be fille
I think you've properly characterized the present relationship between those in control of the State and everyone else.
Those that receive tax dollars are land owners while everyone else is a share-cropper.
Limited liability corporations are an artificial creation of the state. The shareholders have been granted a massive privilege: the opportunity to make money with no liability for wrongdoing, however egregious. There is absolutely no problem with the state taxing the recipients of that massive privilege. If they don't like it, they can put aside the liability protections and work as, for example, a partnership.
Ah, yes, more anti-MS blogspam. How wonderful that Soulkill and Timothy are so predictable.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
So it looks like you're trying to do a budget....
You're embarassing yourself Jeremiah Cornelius http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3581857&cid=43276741 since you posted that using your registered username by mistake (instead of your usual anonymous coward submissions by the 100's the past 2-3 months now on slashdot) giving away it's you spamming this forums almost constantly, just as you have in the post I just replied to.
... that when funding runs out in April, because of an Excel error, the kindergartener's whiteboards will all go BSOD?
If that's the case, then the Democratic Party Incorporated is a national mega-corp that rents most of the country out to workers that pay taxes to support those their shareholders (registered Democrats) that don't work.
And soon they'll have uncontested control in perpetuity once illegal immigrants (foreign mercenaries) are given amnesty and allowed to vote (fight).
But people aren't taxed based on that privilege. They're taxed simply for wanting to work. The LLC privilege is extended by the state in the hopes that some people will be more willing to contribute to enterprises that will later be taxed instead of being too fearful of being personally the object of a lawsuit. Two different issues.
Why should Washington State get 1.5% of royalties from Microsoft? What costs do royalties impose on the state? What is the state providing in return that contributes to those royalties?
Why not some other state? Tons of people around the world have contributed to Microsoft's products and royalties; why shouldn't the places they live get a cut? And if it's as arbitrary as it is, what's wrong if Microsoft arbitrarily moves its location to Nevada or anywhere else?
Remember that that money is going to be used either as a business expense, or it is going to be taxed as capital gains or salaries anyway.
I don't think you understand what limited liability means.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
They did: they opened an office in Nevada and are selling the software from there. How is (not) paying taxes in Nevada any more arbitrary than paying taxes in Washington? The majority of Microsoft's employees aren't located in Washington State.
Most of the people slamming MS have obviously never run a business. Not once in that article do they mention anything to do with payroll taxes which aren't cheap.
And everything seems to be implying they don't pay property tax, taxes on office supplies, fleet vehicles, utilities, etc. all.
Most people either choose to ignore all these taxes in their day to day life or bury their heads in the sand, but when you run a business you see ALL of these and it's not very pretty and you WILL look for any way to cut those expenses.
If I were Microsoft I'd just head to Texas where the majority; so far; don't seem to feel so entitled to everyone eless money. And they do just fine with no income tax on top of that.
When you morons are done giving all the money power to the government and they turn on you, I'll be in my bunker laughing my ass off eating canned pork and beans. Should be entertaining.
PS. You are not entitled to any of my pork and beans.
"Senator Andy Hill is 'the first Senate budget chair ever to request Excel files instead of paper spreadsheets.'"
Please tell me this is a joke. Sure, bash Microsoft and Excel all you want.... But how the hell did they plan the budget before this?
And what do these corporations extract from the state? I'm sure they benefit from some services, but an examination of government budgets shows that the bulk of money now spent by governments amounts to forced charity or transfers of money.
The typical things we think of like police, courts, etc, make up a very small portion of money spent by the State.
The two must find $1 billion in new money for the state's K-12 system.' Unfortunately [for them, they] ... are among those behind the deficit and cutbacks in the first place.
I think the technical term for that is "Hoist with one's own petard."
Schadenfreude. When will they ever learn.
We are now letting companies directly write laws instead of simply bribing elected officials.
Of course the Washington state senators know that the Microsoft guys will only be looking to protect their own interests. But Microsoft officially owns Washington state, they can simply threaten to move billions of dollars of taxpayers out of state if they do not bend over and do whatever Microsoft says.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Now they will offshore all government jobs and infrastructure to India. Pay twice as much and get half the productivity. How is that any different than the status quo?
Nokia!
I fully expect that the State Legslitature will soon be packed with ex MS staffers. Then they will bring in a bill to officially change the name from Washington (the only state named after a president) to MicrosoftLand and replacing WA with MS
Think of all that lovely free advertising on all vehicles. Fantastic
(tongue in cheek here)
Surely they wouldn't, would they?
M$ did cause Nokia to tank. That was done via Elop. The topic of Elop comes up often at Tomi Ahonen's blog. He is the most accurate mobile forcaster around and has on multiple occasions enumerated the damage being caused by Microsoft's Elop at Nokia. Nokia was at the top of it's game when Elop killed it. The Linux phone that he stopped was getting better reviews than the iPhone. But at this point there's nothing viable left and he's even brought in more people from M$ than just himself to ensure that the damage is permanent. Most of the talent has been fired or left on their own. If you want to look for progress, you'll have to turn away from Nokia and towards Jolla. That's just a sample of what the state of Washington can expect with microsofter in charge.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
That is just ordinary corporate compromising of the state. No comparison to the cynical world health camapigns for state money by a certain foundation.
Ah, spoken like a wage slave who is angry with himself that he isn't opening his own business and wants to drag down everybody to his level. If you actually ran your own business, you'd think differently.
Since his former employer was massively corrupt, you can bank cash that he is still being paid by mickeysoft, and Washington State will continue to suffer as he gets 100,000 mickeysoft shares per year, every year that he 'helps' them not pay their fair share of taxes. A $4.37 Billion tax dodge should be worth at least 43.7 million in 'retirement fund for former employee turned politician fund'. Is it underhanded, immoral, unethical and illegal? You betcha! Fucking xl files? You bet he is still working for them. I wouldn't even be surprised if they gave the politician a special version of xl so that when it reads 'mickeysoft' and 'tax' it always puts "$4.37 billion" beside the box that says 'refund'. Fuck the kindergardeners. Fuck the school kids. Fuck the old people. Fuck the roads, and fuck everyone else! There are multi-billionaires who are desperate to not pay a penny in tax. Think of them! We must dismantle the infrastructure that led to the creation of the billionaires in the first place (competition is always a bad thing), and then squeeze the little people. Its the American way!
I had the pleasure of working with Windows 7 a week ago, on the rare occasion I had to set up a demonstration on a netbook. Hadn't seriously touched windows since.. I don't know. Probably NT. And it *still* is a toy-OS.
Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
It's ludicrous to claim that because of Microsoft "tax breaks" the state of Washington faces cuts. Washington does not have a revenue problem; it has a spending problem. From 1999 to 2009 the state budget increased 80%. Inflation and population growth combined was 39%. I don't know anyone who can even point to an increase in services provided by the state today compared to 1999. If they had been prudent in their spending they could have accounted for inflation and population growth with half the increase they did.
How did this happen? Lots of special interests, of course, but the basic fuel was sales taxes, which people don't really notice. When people were buying new cars the money rolled in and the state spent it. When the recession hit people cut back spending and suddenly the gravy train of sales taxes slowed to a trickle.
Now the state wants to tax everything because it's "for the children." They're looking for scapegoats and Microsoft is a nice big one to blame. It already has one of the highest sales taxes and gas taxes in the nation. It's a liberal tax and spend state.
But hey. If you want to move where the welfare payments are pretty good, move to Washington, a place where "undocumented aliens" get in-state tuition and help. With policies like Washington it won't be long before this place looks like Detroit.
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
Big tech companies are almost unheard of in the Midwest. Boeing already made the move, MS should be follow their footsteps.
New Economic Perspectives
America seems to be blue screening !
And what do these corporations extract from the state?
Their existence is entirely state derived. If limited liability isn't worth paying whatever price the state demands for it then the owners can always do without it.
Typical right wing response. Every time the rich evade lots of taxes everybody else has a "spending problem", as if that excuses the behavior.
Issues of spending may be legitimate, but are separate from the subject of tax cheats.
+1 informative. This state is suffering from out of control spending fueled by special interest projects. Grrr
just like the guy from Monsanto working for the FDA, and the guy from General Electric working as Obama's Job Tzar, it isnt anything new, the revolving door of crony/fascism has been going on between the private sector and govt for a long long time
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
are you denying the tax breaks happened or not? I'm confused. giving tax breaks is as good as spending in the situation too though, so the special interest group of MS would count.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Tax evasion is illegal.
Tax avoidance is legal.
This article isn't about evading taxes, it's about avoiding taxes.
For tax evasion, the company or individual is responsible for not doing it. For tax avoidance, the legislature is responsible for having a reasonable tax code, but a company who doesn't take any available tax avoidance measures (so long as the cost of avoiding taxes is below the taxes avoided themselves) is irrational or ignorant.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
But isn't there something just a little wrong with the idea that there are morally no limits to what the State can extract from a for-profit corporation?
I'm thinking it's the other way around. Microsoft and most if not all corporations try to hide as much taxable income as they can. Microsoft is famous for this. So where does this 'extraction' by the State happen?
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
I don't think you understand what limited liability means.
Actually, I think he does. When you incorporate as an LLC and something catastrophic happens, the LLC is nailed and likely killed while the owners remain relatively untouched.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
We legalized weed in Washington State. Now we need more money? Start selling it.
Granted I have a great dealer and I'd probably never buy any weed from you, but I'm pretty sure there is a ton of people who would. Get selling bitches!
Be seeing you...
Yes, only the assets and time they've invested in the LLC are subject to loss. That's why it's limited - you risk what you're putting into it, and everything it's made as well. Your other personal assets are not subject to loss... But there's still a lot on the line.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Tax breaks are legal, are they not? Revenues to the State are up over 60% since 1999, quite a bit more than inflation plus population growth. Spending is way out of line. That's the problem. It's not a revenue problem, and it's not a number-of-consumers problem (demand - inflation plus population growth). It's a spending/Government pork ladle problem.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Oh great!!! I just wonder how many M$ features will be included with Budget V 1.0... some features to include are buffer overflow, missing library, wrong type declaration and easter egg communicators!!!
FragHARD or don't frag at all
Typical left wing response. It is a FACT that spending increased twice as fast as inflation and population growth. You cannot explain that away.
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.