Haha. That sucks. I always went to the bank at home (key bank or something) to trade in my coins. No rolls or anything, I'd just go in there with an old brown paper bag full of pennies and watch the teller count them out on the counter. Haha. That fucking ruled.
I feel OK that some of my tax dollars (in fact, probably a fair bit of my tax dollars) go to things that do not directly affect my life, but may benefit the lives of others.
Yes. The key thing to realize is that, were there no taxes, you would still be free to use your money to benefit the lives of others. But, with taxes, there is no way I can ungive my money. And I just don't see why your feeling OK should have any affect on my property. In fact, there are lots of things I wouldn't mind giving money to. But I don't have any desire to force other people to do the same, or have some more powerful entity do so for me.
This depends on from where your mp3's come. If you download them, they most likely are obtained a little bit at a time, and probably need to be fixed (ID3 tag inaccuracies are very common) or deleted (so are incomplete or corrupted files) at some point after they are written.
You should only have one stereo. When you have lots of stereos everywhere, you are treating the effects instead of the cause. You don't want stereos everywhere, you want music everywhere.
Here is an approach which has worked well for some: listen to mp3's (on your so-called "pod") while jogging, CDs while in your house, and talk radio while in the car. This is tried and true, and prevents you from getting boring. Your friends will thank me!
Since when has Microsoft made a 3d OpenGL engine for windows users?
MS gave Windows D3D. Torque is using OpenGL. AKA a SGI product.
Sorry, I can't seem to cut through this jargon. I could write, "TL gave Windows C5C. Sponge is using GreenBZ. PXP a CRA product." but that doesn't make it useful.
I stand by my original claim, that none of this is necessary except for Linux.
This was obvious from the beginning. Anyone with half a brain saw this coming years ago. Some "mystery." Question: When will Science learn that people won't accept the same worn-out plot devices year after year? This is why more and more people are turning to Indie or Foreign Science, where some originality can still be found.
Sorry I forgot to make my point, which was that toll roads (where tolls are paid automatically through digital cash, and there are "unlimited use" packages available for commuters) are better than tax-funded roads. They ensure that the people paying for the roads are the same as the people who are using them.
BTW, if industry were in change of the roads, they might be better roads, but they'd all be toll roads. No thanks.
This is accomplished now through gas taxes (mostly, I think), but there are some problems with that. I could be buying a bunch of gas to mow my lawn a lot, in which case I shouldn't be funding roads. Also, some places have really high gas prices and really terrible roads (New York comes to mind).
I don't even know what Tribes means (in a computer context, of course...I am aware of the word "tribe" in English as being a kind of extended family utilized by primitive peoples of the Earth). And of course it works on Windows, whatever it may be. That was my original point. This Torque nonsense is just Linux trying to finally give their users what Microsoft has been giving Windows users for years.
Except that Apple now uses the same (lower end, usually) standard PC parts for all of the components. SCSI disks are optional, IIRC, but except for the board itself (and goodies like FireWire, AirPort, and that magic super DVD drive or whatever) and the power supply, you are pretty much getting the same thing you would in a lower end PC (i.e., PC100 RAM, smallish IDE disk, slowish PCI bus).
What the hell is this story about? Only the folks at Linux could come up with something called a "torque engine" or a "game garage." Windows will play DVDs and run games without any of this nonsense. I guess you get what you pay for.
We may have 50 different car companies in selling in this country but they didn't build the roads.
If the government had not designated itself the sole provider of roads, you can bet that companies and individuals who had something to gain from their existence would have invested in them privately. And they would probably be in a little bit better shape, too.
If I want to donate my time or money to free software, than I am capable of following through with that action. I do not need my taxes removed from my pants for me and channeled into the appropriate black hole.
The time has come for our schools to dump Microsoft en masse and move to Macs (where they can afford them) and Linux (to recycle their existing PCs). School money is needed for teaching kids, not to fatten greedy and cruel sharks like Microsoft!
In my experience as a student, the last Apple computers to be useful in a school environment were the IIe's we had in middle school.
Macs are generally too unstable for use in labs (again, in my experience). Further, there are no advantages I can think of offered by Macs over PCs (any OS) in an educational environment.
I think Intel-based free *nix boxes make the most sense for schools. They beat the pants off Macs and Windows PCs in price/performance, stability, and security. In college, the old P2's with Red Hat were as quick as the P3 Win2k computers, and much faster than the G3 Macs. They also simultaneously allow students to learn more about how computers really work, and ease them into programming, etc.
Teaching on Macs made sense in the days of Windows 3.1. These days it does students a disservice.
You might give disc golf a shot. It's cheap to get into, pretty good exercise (as golf goes), and exposes you to nature, which is fun. There are courses all over, so check out the directory to find one near you. Most people try it out with normal frisbees before investing in real golf discs.
Oh, relaxed is the name of the game also. It is not unusual to see beer drinking and pot smoking on the course and in the parking lots, though this obviously varies a lot course to course
BSOD's are so... 1995. The only reason I've had one in the last 3 years was due to a crappy mobo. BSOD's virtually disappeared when Windows 2000 came around. (I know, people are going to argue with me. I've had 4 Win2k machines personally, and nearly all my coworkers are running it just fine. You're not going to say anything to convince me that Windows 2000 is garbage.)
I was really going for the slashdot-friendly joke than real commentary. I have been using W2k since February (new job) and it has not crashed on me yet. I usually run it from Monday morning to Friday evening with no problems, though sometimes it has that "could really use a reboot" feeling by Friday.
Personally, I don't see the appeal of cellular phones. I know, I know, "in case of an emergency." But, you know what? It's an emergency, it's supposed to be bad. That's why we call it an emergency.
Seriously, I just don't think the peace of mind is worth the hassle of the portable phone. I even hate my cordless phone.
again, at the Z tax bracket where this kind of decision becomes necessary, you are not looking at whether or not you are going to put forward enough effort to put food on the table. that is already taken care of. you are worried about things way, way down on the 'need pyramid' (if you subscribe to that kind of thing).
No, not really, sorry.:) Nearly everyone, given a choice, would like to have more wealth. They could be spending it on food, clothing, or magazines. I agree that no one is going to turn down work if they haven't enough to feed themselves, regardless of the tax rate. But sustenence is reached pretty quickly, IMO, and at that point it becomes a very real concern: do I work for X minutes and make pennies on the dollar, or do I just enjoy X minutes of scratching myself?
but having said that, i am often lazy enough to wonder if i should put in the extra effort to get the 60 cents on the dollar's worth of effort. early in the month i usually decide yes, because the bills are not paid. by the end of the month, i usually decide no because i'm not going to lose my house/go hungry this month.
I can see that. Basically you don't value your time to a lesser enough extent than your employer does that the time investment would be advantageous. As long as you put food on the table, you're okay. Three ways to go here (not counting combinations) to change this: your employer could pay you more, the government could take a smaller cut, or you could value your time less. One guess which solution I favor.:)
but i think talking about a "dollar's worth" of effort is misleading, because a dollar's worth of my effort takes about as much time as someone else's shift at McBurger's. do you think talking about things in terms of time, not money, would lead to a more interesting discussion? because an hour of time is less subjective than the value of a dollar.
So you are much less valuable than a McBurger's employee? Hm. In any case, I wouldn't say that time is less subjective: knowing how much a given person values an hour of her time is as difficult as knowing how much she values a dollar. But it's hard to talk about the impact of taxes on time, the return on time investments (daylight savings?), and so forth, since these are all concepts that operate on dollars. Most people know what their time is worth to their employer, and probably most of them think it is pretty fair.
the current form of taxes does not do a very good job of providing income. heard of the Laffer Curve [vistech.net]? basically we are not maxing out the money the government could be making from taxes.
I had forgotten this from Econ in college, but the link jogged my memory. Thanks. Very interesting. Personally, I would be more interested in maxing out individual income than gov't income, but I know I may not be in the majority there.
maybe i'm guessing wrong, but perhaps you agree that having a "big active government" might be the first problem?
I do happen to agree with this, but my statement is obviously valid either way. That is, those who support big governments are generally willing to turn over lots of their (and others') money to them.
you are mixing up the terms "the highest income brackets" and "effort". people who need food put forth effort. here's a hint, those were not the people at the highest income bracket. people who have food but may want a yacht may not care enough to put forth more "effort".
There are many uses for money (I'd say it's probably the second most versatile tool we've found, next to human ingenuity). It doesn't matter what any given person wants money for. Everyone wants to minimize effort.
also, clearing up a strangely common misconception, 90% tax does not mean the person gives 90% of all their income to the government. this means that at some point, 90% of all ADDITIONAL money goes to the government. so they give 0% of their first X dollars, Y% of their next Z dollars, and 95% of all dollars after that.
This may be a commonly held misconception, but not by me. How much I have already paid is irrelevent when I am making the decision whether or not to put in another dollar's worth of effort knowing that I'm only going to get to keep a nickel for it.
there are a LOT of people sitting below X. nearly all people are below Z. people making more than Z... well, everyone below X and nearly all below Z couldn't care LESS about their "efforts".
Z was not all that high. I believe it was close to $100k.
me, personally, i hate the current tax system because it doesn't perform the purpose for which it was supposedly created. right now, the tax system serves as a tool for wealth redistribution and social engineering, and not much else (other than political "discussion" ever 4 years or so).
Well, taxes are designed to provide income for the government, right? I'd say they do that okay. Big, active governments require lots of taxes, no surprise there.
Yes, the earliest primates are commonly known as "cavemen," and it is clear that they lived with, ate, and rode dinosaurs for farmwork and warfare. It is a little known fact that monkeys, apes, and even some mammals are also primates, technically related to both humans and cavemen (also known as "early man"). Dinosaurs were either birds or reptiles, or even occaisionally amphibians, but never primates, unfortunately.
After a couple of months, the Mayor cancelled his line, since it was idiotic to pay $20 a month to be able to call just the fire department, wheter there was a fire or not.
If there was a fire, it might be worth it. Assume a fire happens at the mayor's house on average every 200 years. During a fire there is a 5% chance of one of his 10 children dying if the fire department cannot be contacted, but only a 0.5% chance if it can be.
Then for 200 x $20 x 12 = $48000 he will probably save all 10 children rather than just 1 (work with me here). Are any of your children worth $48000/(10-1) = $5333.33 and 1/3?
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Haha. That sucks. I always went to the bank at home (key bank or something) to trade in my coins. No rolls or anything, I'd just go in there with an old brown paper bag full of pennies and watch the teller count them out on the counter. Haha. That fucking ruled.
Yes. The key thing to realize is that, were there no taxes, you would still be free to use your money to benefit the lives of others. But, with taxes, there is no way I can ungive my money. And I just don't see why your feeling OK should have any affect on my property. In fact, there are lots of things I wouldn't mind giving money to. But I don't have any desire to force other people to do the same, or have some more powerful entity do so for me.
Thanks for the link. That looks to be just the ticket.
This depends on from where your mp3's come. If you download them, they most likely are obtained a little bit at a time, and probably need to be fixed (ID3 tag inaccuracies are very common) or deleted (so are incomplete or corrupted files) at some point after they are written.
Here is an approach which has worked well for some: listen to mp3's (on your so-called "pod") while jogging, CDs while in your house, and talk radio while in the car. This is tried and true, and prevents you from getting boring. Your friends will thank me!
And I thought page widening posts were fixed. I guess I was hoping for too much. Instead of fixing slashcode they just break it differently.
Someone should organize a boycott of slashdot or something.
At least they have not reposted Katz's ad for his fucking dog book or whatever.
This is of no use to me, as I never consider buying a computer unless it is at least 45 points.
Sorry, I can't seem to cut through this jargon. I could write, "TL gave Windows C5C. Sponge is using GreenBZ. PXP a CRA product." but that doesn't make it useful.
I stand by my original claim, that none of this is necessary except for Linux.
Although the oscillating neutrinos did catch me off guard.
This was obvious from the beginning. Anyone with half a brain saw this coming years ago. Some "mystery." Question: When will Science learn that people won't accept the same worn-out plot devices year after year? This is why more and more people are turning to Indie or Foreign Science, where some originality can still be found.
Sorry I forgot to make my point, which was that toll roads (where tolls are paid automatically through digital cash, and there are "unlimited use" packages available for commuters) are better than tax-funded roads. They ensure that the people paying for the roads are the same as the people who are using them.
This is accomplished now through gas taxes (mostly, I think), but there are some problems with that. I could be buying a bunch of gas to mow my lawn a lot, in which case I shouldn't be funding roads. Also, some places have really high gas prices and really terrible roads (New York comes to mind).
I don't even know what Tribes means (in a computer context, of course...I am aware of the word "tribe" in English as being a kind of extended family utilized by primitive peoples of the Earth). And of course it works on Windows, whatever it may be. That was my original point. This Torque nonsense is just Linux trying to finally give their users what Microsoft has been giving Windows users for years.
Except that Apple now uses the same (lower end, usually) standard PC parts for all of the components. SCSI disks are optional, IIRC, but except for the board itself (and goodies like FireWire, AirPort, and that magic super DVD drive or whatever) and the power supply, you are pretty much getting the same thing you would in a lower end PC (i.e., PC100 RAM, smallish IDE disk, slowish PCI bus).
What the hell is this story about? Only the folks at Linux could come up with something called a "torque engine" or a "game garage." Windows will play DVDs and run games without any of this nonsense. I guess you get what you pay for.
We may have 50 different car companies in selling in this country but they didn't build the roads.
If the government had not designated itself the sole provider of roads, you can bet that companies and individuals who had something to gain from their existence would have invested in them privately. And they would probably be in a little bit better shape, too.
If I want to donate my time or money to free software, than I am capable of following through with that action. I do not need my taxes removed from my pants for me and channeled into the appropriate black hole.
In my experience as a student, the last Apple computers to be useful in a school environment were the IIe's we had in middle school.
Macs are generally too unstable for use in labs (again, in my experience). Further, there are no advantages I can think of offered by Macs over PCs (any OS) in an educational environment.
I think Intel-based free *nix boxes make the most sense for schools. They beat the pants off Macs and Windows PCs in price/performance, stability, and security. In college, the old P2's with Red Hat were as quick as the P3 Win2k computers, and much faster than the G3 Macs. They also simultaneously allow students to learn more about how computers really work, and ease them into programming, etc.
Teaching on Macs made sense in the days of Windows 3.1. These days it does students a disservice.
Oh, relaxed is the name of the game also. It is not unusual to see beer drinking and pot smoking on the course and in the parking lots, though this obviously varies a lot course to course
I was really going for the slashdot-friendly joke than real commentary. I have been using W2k since February (new job) and it has not crashed on me yet. I usually run it from Monday morning to Friday evening with no problems, though sometimes it has that "could really use a reboot" feeling by Friday.
Personally, I don't see the appeal of cellular phones. I know, I know, "in case of an emergency." But, you know what? It's an emergency, it's supposed to be bad. That's why we call it an emergency.
Seriously, I just don't think the peace of mind is worth the hassle of the portable phone. I even hate my cordless phone.
No, not really, sorry. :) Nearly everyone, given a choice, would like to have more wealth. They could be spending it on food, clothing, or magazines. I agree that no one is going to turn down work if they haven't enough to feed themselves, regardless of the tax rate. But sustenence is reached pretty quickly, IMO, and at that point it becomes a very real concern: do I work for X minutes and make pennies on the dollar, or do I just enjoy X minutes of scratching myself?
but having said that, i am often lazy enough to wonder if i should put in the extra effort to get the 60 cents on the dollar's worth of effort. early in the month i usually decide yes, because the bills are not paid. by the end of the month, i usually decide no because i'm not going to lose my house/go hungry this month.
I can see that. Basically you don't value your time to a lesser enough extent than your employer does that the time investment would be advantageous. As long as you put food on the table, you're okay. Three ways to go here (not counting combinations) to change this: your employer could pay you more, the government could take a smaller cut, or you could value your time less. One guess which solution I favor. :)
but i think talking about a "dollar's worth" of effort is misleading, because a dollar's worth of my effort takes about as much time as someone else's shift at McBurger's. do you think talking about things in terms of time, not money, would lead to a more interesting discussion? because an hour of time is less subjective than the value of a dollar.
So you are much less valuable than a McBurger's employee? Hm. In any case, I wouldn't say that time is less subjective: knowing how much a given person values an hour of her time is as difficult as knowing how much she values a dollar. But it's hard to talk about the impact of taxes on time, the return on time investments (daylight savings?), and so forth, since these are all concepts that operate on dollars. Most people know what their time is worth to their employer, and probably most of them think it is pretty fair.
the current form of taxes does not do a very good job of providing income. heard of the Laffer Curve [vistech.net]? basically we are not maxing out the money the government could be making from taxes.
I had forgotten this from Econ in college, but the link jogged my memory. Thanks. Very interesting. Personally, I would be more interested in maxing out individual income than gov't income, but I know I may not be in the majority there.
maybe i'm guessing wrong, but perhaps you agree that having a "big active government" might be the first problem?
I do happen to agree with this, but my statement is obviously valid either way. That is, those who support big governments are generally willing to turn over lots of their (and others') money to them.
There are many uses for money (I'd say it's probably the second most versatile tool we've found, next to human ingenuity). It doesn't matter what any given person wants money for. Everyone wants to minimize effort.
also, clearing up a strangely common misconception, 90% tax does not mean the person gives 90% of all their income to the government. this means that at some point, 90% of all ADDITIONAL money goes to the government. so they give 0% of their first X dollars, Y% of their next Z dollars, and 95% of all dollars after that.
This may be a commonly held misconception, but not by me. How much I have already paid is irrelevent when I am making the decision whether or not to put in another dollar's worth of effort knowing that I'm only going to get to keep a nickel for it.
there are a LOT of people sitting below X. nearly all people are below Z. people making more than Z... well, everyone below X and nearly all below Z couldn't care LESS about their "efforts".
Z was not all that high. I believe it was close to $100k.
me, personally, i hate the current tax system because it doesn't perform the purpose for which it was supposedly created. right now, the tax system serves as a tool for wealth redistribution and social engineering, and not much else (other than political "discussion" ever 4 years or so).
Well, taxes are designed to provide income for the government, right? I'd say they do that okay. Big, active governments require lots of taxes, no surprise there.
IMO the best feature is the button-fly.
Yes, the earliest primates are commonly known as "cavemen," and it is clear that they lived with, ate, and rode dinosaurs for farmwork and warfare. It is a little known fact that monkeys, apes, and even some mammals are also primates, technically related to both humans and cavemen (also known as "early man"). Dinosaurs were either birds or reptiles, or even occaisionally amphibians, but never primates, unfortunately.
If there was a fire, it might be worth it. Assume a fire happens at the mayor's house on average every 200 years. During a fire there is a 5% chance of one of his 10 children dying if the fire department cannot be contacted, but only a 0.5% chance if it can be.
Then for 200 x $20 x 12 = $48000 he will probably save all 10 children rather than just 1 (work with me here). Are any of your children worth $48000/(10-1) = $5333.33 and 1/3?