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User: Actually,+I+do+RTFA

Actually,+I+do+RTFA's activity in the archive.

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  1. Why would Amazon be good for this? on Amazon Shelves Plan To Sell Prescription Drugs (cnbc.com) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Amazon is pretty good at consumer delivery, but they're B2B service for repeated mass deliveries doesn't really exist yet. Nor is it in their area of competency. Those supply chains are already pretty well optimized, the ordering will be done via boring forms (for legal reasons), and there's no upselling/tracking of people's desires, and things are moved by the box, not the item. Also, big hospital chains already get bulk discounts.

    My guess is they really just weren't able to compete on price and service, not that "there are longstanding relationships that made hospitals decide to lose money.:

  2. With indemnification? on Online Tax Filers Will Get Extension After IRS Payment Website Outage (cnbc.com) · · Score: 1

    TurboTax has uninterrupted service and is available and accepting e-filed returns," she said. "We will hold returns until the IRS is ready to begin accepting them again." H&R Block said it will continue to accept returns from filers.

    So TurboTax and H&R Block are willing to accept money! And get paid on putting that money to work between now and when the IRS "accepts" it, presumably via the same website. Now, the question is, if the IRS charges late fees, but TurboTax/H&R Block accepted the cash, will they pay the late fees?

    Right now it's me, but in a few months it may be class-action-lawyers who want to know.

  3. Re:Edit Address Line Is Not Hacking on 19-Year-Old Archivist Charged For Downloading Freedom-of-Information Releases (www.cbc.ca) · · Score: 1

    Oh, I agree. Just the line wasn't drawn properly, and I could be pedantic.

  4. Re:Misplaced priorities, solving nonexistent... on One Laptop Per Child's $100 Laptop Was Going To Change the World -- Then it All Went Wrong (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    I was thinking about India, specifically.

  5. If the power supply has to (a) be a battery and (b) power the screen, more than a completely built lower power laptop. At least, as far as I've found. If you've found otherwise, let me know. But yeah, it's cost that makes me plan my next laptop (for light use) a Chromebook plus a Linux distro instead of a RaspBiBook.

  6. Re:Misplaced priorities, solving nonexistent... on One Laptop Per Child's $100 Laptop Was Going To Change the World -- Then it All Went Wrong (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    Speaking of shit holes, plumbing, specifically, the toilet, is a major quality of life improvement due to improvements in sanitary conditions.

    It's hard to get people to start using a toilet (amazingly enough.) It's far easier to get them using smartphones/computers.

  7. Re:Edit Address Line Is Not Hacking on 19-Year-Old Archivist Charged For Downloading Freedom-of-Information Releases (www.cbc.ca) · · Score: 1

    editing the address line is not hacking, not in any way, shape or form. A user name and password request and getting past that is.

    Technically, most username/passwords are handled via the address line (or can be) this making the second case a subset of the first. Either supplying credentials via GET or prior to the domain.

  8. Re:Short sellers on Tesla Temporarily Stops Model 3 Production Line (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    Elon Musk is aware of the shorts and tends to do something to prop up the stock price whenever it drops a little.

    Alternatively, if Tesla wasn't going to need to issue more stock for cash any time soon, he could just let the shorts happen and then buy more shares at a lower price. If he believed in Tesla that is.

  9. Re:With Tablets is this even relevant anymore? on One Laptop Per Child's $100 Laptop Was Going To Change the World -- Then it All Went Wrong (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    The sub-$100 android tablets aren't ruggedized. That seems to be important. I also imagine a different linux distro would be better if you wanted to convert a tablet to a cheap laptop.

  10. Re:Wonder how SD will handle it if they win? on Supreme Court Set To Hear Landmark Online Sales Tax Case (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 0

    If the tax rate is now going to be based on the location of the buyer the rate is going to vary on a per-customer basis. A retailer shouldn't have to be burdened with figuring out the rate for every single person in a state separately.

    What parts of my job can I force the government to do for me?

    You know lots of these rural people don't even know their physical location?

    Well, I imagine those rural locations have no special sales tax rates.

  11. Re:Wonder how SD will handle it if they win? on Supreme Court Set To Hear Landmark Online Sales Tax Case (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 0

    I don't see why SD will have to compile all that information in one place for online stores. They don't for physical stores.

  12. Re:It was ripe for disruption a while ago on Demand For Batteries Is Shrinking, Yet Prices Keep On Going and Going ... Up (wsj.com) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't buy anything that's not rechargable

    I feel the exact opposite - I love AA devices. I want batteries to be replaceable and standard. I have rechargeable AA's. The batteries are obviously user-replacable. I can keep a bunch of them charged for quick swaps. I don't need to figure out which device needed to be charged, I just put the AAs in the charger from wherever they came from. I don't need to move the devices to near an outlet to charge them. And, in an emergency, I can just get a bunch of non-rechargable AAs from the store to run devices.

    I'm clearly a large enough use case that it's driving single use batteries into a niche market.

    I'm not sure that's really true. While the number of rechargable devices has exploded, most of those are things are replacing power cords, not AAs.

  13. Re:Corporate Personhood ... on Europe Divided Over Robot 'Personhood' (politico.eu) · · Score: 1

    Corporations should not pay income tax!

    You want to go back to an excise tax? Cause that hurts low-margin businesses (grocery stores) and helps high-margin businesses (Wall street high frequency traders). That seems the wrong way to go to me.

  14. Re: OR ? on Europe Divided Over Robot 'Personhood' (politico.eu) · · Score: 1

    They are trying to create a path that enable them to tax robots

    Robots can already be taxed, just like cars, boat, property, etc.

    This is dangerous.

    I'm not sure why. Taxing robots seems to be a pretty good way to handle once people are extraneous to the manufacturing process.

    The consumer ends up paying all taxes in th end

    Do you have any evidence that's true (in the real world, not in theory)?

    n effect that would hold back automation and we would have an economic horror show as other nations may not tax robots at all.

    That actually seems like a good use for tariffs.

  15. Re:Hope you're enjoying your walled garden. on Is It Time To Stop Using Social Media? (counterpunch.org) · · Score: 1

    Facebook co-opted XMPP. FB messenger was originally standard XMPP. They then extended/extinguished it..

  16. Re:Schools should teach how to find opposing views on Is It Time To Stop Using Social Media? (counterpunch.org) · · Score: 1

    Schools should teach how to find opposing views. It is a learnable skill

    Citation very much needed.

  17. Re:Wrong question; You shouldn't have used it at a on Is It Time To Stop Using Social Media? (counterpunch.org) · · Score: 1

    move to WhatsApp as an alternative to Facebook. WA at least does end-to-end encryption and isn't a social network, so while not perfect it's a lot better.

    What a waste of your ability to push a change on your firends. WhatsApp is a Facebook company. All the metadata is still mined by Facebook (friends lists, communications timing, all the data WhatsApp gathers from your phone, etc.) And there are unconfirmed reports that WhatsApp, while encrypting your information, somehow mines the data and uses it to serve personalized ads. Maybe in app, before it was encrypted? Maybe tokenized?

  18. at least in the US we cut that funding for bombs and missiles.

    Actually, the US raised funding for that, and bombs and missiles, and cut taxes on everyone. Budget limitations are for suckers.

  19. So, no copyright on the videos? on YouTube Is Littered With Mass-Produced Videos Made By Automated Bots (hackernoon.com) · · Score: 1

    Isn't procedurally generated content with no input from a person outside of copyright protection? So someone can repost the videos on their own account?

    I'm not a lawyer, so a real lawyer's answer would be appreciated.

  20. Re:This will hold for the first ten years of cooli on Ocean Current That Keeps Europe Warm Is Weakening Because of Climate Change (washingtonpost.com) · · Score: 1

    There's not going to be global cooling. In 6 years, Galactic Overlord Zenu is going to come back and rapture up all the level 7 or higher Scientologists and then blow up the planet.

  21. Re:Do we trust the legal system? on Google Loses 'Right To Be Forgotten' Case (bbc.com) · · Score: 1

    When's the last time you looked at actual paper records vs. Googling someone? How often do you do either?

  22. Re:Do we trust the legal system? on Google Loses 'Right To Be Forgotten' Case (bbc.com) · · Score: 1

    Perhaps the other way around: Democrats are more likely to be criminals?

    That Democrats are more likely to be convicted of being criminals. Because most black people are Democrats, and black people face higher conviction rates. The higher conviction rates hold up even in areas where black and white people offend at similar rates (e.g. marijuana possession.)

  23. Re: Do we trust the legal system? on Google Loses 'Right To Be Forgotten' Case (bbc.com) · · Score: 1

    Because it's as easy to search hardcopy back issues of newspapers as to type a request into Google?

  24. Re:Yay Coal Power on A Coal Power Plant is Being Reopened For Blockchain Mining (cnet.com) · · Score: 1

    Gold is at least useful in the long term.

  25. Re:Learning from history on Tesla Relied On Too Many Robots To Build the Model 3, Elon Musk Says (theverge.com) · · Score: 2

    In fairness, between 1985 and 1995 we also learned that streaming video over the internet was impossible. It's completely fair to claim that robot technology has improved in the past 25-30 years in a way that obviates those lessons. Now, hiring some people who participated back then and had institutional knowledge of failure points would probably be start.