"I wouldn't speed, change lanes, honk, swerve or even imperceptibly roll a stop sign."
Which would lead to cops pulling you over because they thought you were suspicious:)
Seriously, how many people don't violate some traffic law on a regular basis? Heck, you can obey the law and be pulled over (hey, I didn't see you wearing a seat belt, you seem to have nearly crossed the center line, etc.)
"You mean, like malpractice insurance for doctors and hospitals, and liability insurance for drug companies, hospitals, and device manufacturers?"
How about salaries? Why do doctors need so much education to diagnose most problems? Do you really need all that staff just to take BP readings and chart notes?
Distribution of costs. My employer pays into Worker's Compensation so if I get hurt at work, my medical bills are covered. But if the state denies my claim, guess who gets billed? My insurance company.
Profits. Private companies need to make profits.
Free care. Hospitals have to subsidize coverage for the uninsured.
Waste. Does every bloody specialist need to take their own set of X-rays? Do you really need that MRI or expensive test? Or that brand name med?
Costs of insurance is low on the list, at least for most doctors.
"This has not been the case for a long time. Actually I don't know how long HIPPA has been around but it's not the case any more."
Having access and being able to afford insurance are two different things. Many people would be amazed how much their insurance would cost if they had to pay it out of their own pocket.
"What if we don't want to give money? what if we want to actually DO something ourselves using our own talents?"
Then study to be a lawyer:) Or write letters to your congresscritter, your state legislator and/or the appropriate federal/state agency.
If the opposing side has lawyers, you generally need one too. Hell, even to get basic government services like worker's compensation you often need a lawyer.
Lawyers seem to be the socially accepted (mandated) way to solve problems today.
"Corporations, ultimately, do not pay taxes. Which is why it makes sense to drastically *lower* the tax rate for corporations"
Only if they can pass the cost to the consumer. Not all companies can effectively do this (if there is much competition). And lowering rates does not mean goods will become cheaper-the company may just pocket the difference, pay less attention to efficiency, etc.
"That would at least reduce the incentive for corporations to offshore and seek tax havens, increasing their investments in Americans and American infrastructure."
So would punitive measures and enforcement. Won't happen. In any case, if a corporation is considered a person, it is reasonable to tax it. Now if corporations didn't have essentially the same rights as a person, I wouldn't have an issue if it didn't pay taxes.
"Bottom line for this "Internet Tax" issue: if it doesn't apply to catalog sales, it shouldn't apply to Internet sales. Sales out of state are sales out of state, regardless of the means of delivery of the sale."
But it does apply to catalog sales and internet sales. If the seller does not collect the tax, then the buyer must report and pay the sales tax in Washington State if they live there. At least according to the State....
As I work in Washington and have NEVER heard about this, could you please provide the RCW that covers this?
Or is this just another "I heard it from someone, who heard it from someone, etc."? Most people have no clue what is mandated by law, even when their jobs require it.
"The optics used in cell phone cameras are certainly a lot better then disposable cameras cheap plastic optics yet those cameras were extremely popular before..."
Sorry, but the disposable cameras take better pictures than cell phones.
"Powerpoint and other slides are terrible for lectures."
Absolutely. But the students want them. So they get them....
"Blackboards are under-rated."
My best teachers used them well.
I just wish the notion that learning is or should be "fun" would go away. Learning is hard work. Often boring. The results may be fun, but not the process. Of course, there is nothing wrong with having fun while learning. The best teachers seem to manage the correct balance.
"Basically what I'm saying is that electric/hydrogen power has efficiency and environmental advantages now, but also has the potential for vast improvements in the future and that's even if you keep the exact same car!"
Huh? Hydrogen is most likely to come from coal or petroluem. Why not just burn it directly. Hydrogen might help the local environment but it will have a net negative overall. Until we get electricity to cheap to meter....
The best use of hydrogen is in refining-produce more fuel with less of the waste.
Hydrogen for cars is a solution waiting for a problem.
"Lack of updates should never be misconstrued as meaning there is a system bug that has yet to be fixed."
Ever hear of the phrase "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"?
"The only people I have ever know to take issue with DUI check points were people who had a tendency to drive while intoxicated."
I take isssue with them. They are a PR stunt/waste of resources. I encountered a roadblock once in Ohio. Approximately ten officers for about four hours. Read the stats in the newspaper-about four arrests for DUI (from memory, could be off a bit). Lots of other infractions though.... And they were announced in the paper before they occurred.
If you want to catch drunk drivers, you simply need to frequent the areas around bars. That generally doesn't happen. Curious.
"You can even question the law enforcement officers judgment, but don't expect a jury to take the word of an ignorant drunk over a respect officer of the court..."
That is the problem. Cops are assumed by many people to be perfect or close to it. I have known some cops. And for the most part I haven't been impressed. They weren't impressed by other cops either. The reality is that an officers opinion is rated higher than a typical citizen. There is little good reason for this. I doubt the officer is any more respectable than the drunk and it certainly shouldn't be the assumption.
Remember, most cops don't know the law.
"First I'll point out that I don't drink and drive, I think it's stupid and after the one time I did it I realized what a complete mistake it was, and that was with no one being hurt and everything actually working out just fine."
By the way, you do drink and drive-you just haven't done it lately.
The problem is the low BAC levels for DUI. Lack of sleep is just as dangerous. Distractions are nearly as dangerous. I would bet a large sum that nearly everyone drives under one of those conditions as least as often as driving after drinking. But those are hard to prove so no one bothers.
"I keep a spare set of keys in one of those magnetic things in my wheel well just in case I accidentally lock my keys in my car. Remind me not to go drinking in Canada."
"The problem is that with heroin at your local CVS, you're going to have a hard time convincing people that drug use is morally wrong, and you can't scare them anymore with jail time, etc. You, honestly, are crazy if you think that most people don't use drugs because of a levelheaded decision involving the relevant health related pros and cons that tells them it's a bad idea. Like I said, that way overestimates the quality of the average person. I don't care that you can make that call, the unfortunate fact of the matter is that most people can't, and won't."
So what? There is no good reason to consider drug use morally wrong. Most of the population uses drugs-they just happen to use the legal ones.
It's the actions of people who use various drugs that is the problem. Smokers and heavy drinkers are a much greater threat than those who use illegal drugs.
"Another issue (and I'm sure this has been mentioned by others), is background noise."
I currently use voice recognition in a warehouse-and I would love to have only a 5% error rate. Considering the limited commands used, the template set up time, etc, it sucks a great deal. As you noted, once you introduce background noise, it really sucks. But it also fails in quiet environments. It regulary fails to pick up commands, confuses them (two and zero, eight and vehicle horns), and picks up other users.
Did I mention it sucks?
But it is slightly faster, so we are stuck with it. Just waiting for someone to "accidently" run over the voice unit with a lift....)
Rules with many exceptions aren't terribly useful.... The primary reason to see a doctor results from the state granting a monopoly on prescriptions. If I need a prescription drug, I have to go to a doctor. Even when I know more about the condition than the doctor (which is typical).
"I think his point is, rather, that if your currency is not backed by something of value (e.g gold) and then the value of it floats around, it is far too easy to have that value withheld from you in an instant, as you actually don't own anything except paper banknotes.
Not an unreasonable point, if that IS what he's getting at."
Debatable. Gold has value for the same reason paper money has value. People value gold. While gold is finite, it isn't very rare-we could destroy the value of gold if we desired. Paper money is backed by the US government. As long as people value the US government, its money will be valuable. Both gold and paper money fluctuates in value.
If the US goverment collapses, gold isn't going to be very useful. You don't eat it, it's hard to transport, people will want to take it from you, etc.
"As complicated as the US tax code is, this is the BEST advice for anyone above the poverty level."
Only if the time saved is worth the money spent. Or if you really have a complicated return (business owner for instance). Or are a blithering idiot.
Tens of million of people can fill out the 1040 form and be done with it faster than getting the info to the preparer. Add this to the fact that two preparers will likely get different answers for the same dataset if it has any significant complexity....
If you have only W2 forms and a few basic deductions the tax return takes less than an hour.
Now what really sucks are the companies that take months to send W2 forms.
"Once you get past the surface, the tax laws are not clear. Many of them use phrases like "reasonable proof" or "adequate documentation", or doing something by "industry standards", or "commonly accepted methods". You have to be an experienced accountant to have some idea what those phrases mean, and that meaning may change depending on which IRS agent you talk to."
Those phrases are perfectly clear. If they aren't then you shouldn't be taking the deduction (and probably don't have sufficient documentation to give to an accountant anyway).
If you wouldn't feel comfortable getting audited, then you don't have "reasonable proof" or "adquate documentation".
"Ehm, Pilsner is a kind of lager. Besides, I doubt it's an American favorite. Americans don't really drink beer very much."
Actually lagers are popular in America. Budweiser, Miller, etc all make them. I wouldn't consider them (good) beer, so I could agree that Americans don't really drink beer much:)
"If you had a mechanic out to look at your car, what do you think their reaction would be if you turned round and say "Oh go and fill it up with gas for me too"."
I don't think it would be an issue. Because they would charge their normal hourly rate and an inflated cost for the gas. Easy money.
Computer users generally don't see the cost of their actions. If they did, and were held accountable, things would change.
"Nevertheless, it's one of the most basic ways that we learn--try it and see what happens."
Unfortunately many people are unwilling or unable to do that. Lacking this ability is not limited to computers and operating systems. I would consider it common sense-apparently it isn't so common:)
"I never understood how someone who drives a car, or for that matter uses electricity generated by the burning of fuels, can complain about second hand smoke with a straight face."
For the same reason I don't have a problem with smokers smoking in public. I never felt the urge to pipe my car exhaust into an enclosed space. YMMV:)
Slashdot Mirror
"I wouldn't speed, change lanes, honk, swerve or even imperceptibly roll a stop sign."
:)
Which would lead to cops pulling you over because they thought you were suspicious
Seriously, how many people don't violate some traffic law on a regular basis? Heck, you can obey the law and be pulled over (hey, I didn't see you wearing a seat belt, you seem to have nearly crossed the center line, etc.)
"You mean, like malpractice insurance for doctors and hospitals, and liability insurance for drug companies, hospitals, and device manufacturers?"
How about salaries? Why do doctors need so much education to diagnose most problems? Do you really need all that staff just to take BP readings and chart notes?
Distribution of costs. My employer pays into Worker's Compensation so if I get hurt at work, my medical bills are covered. But if the state denies my claim, guess who gets billed? My insurance company.
Profits. Private companies need to make profits.
Free care. Hospitals have to subsidize coverage for the uninsured.
Waste. Does every bloody specialist need to take their own set of X-rays? Do you really need that MRI or expensive test? Or that brand name med?
Costs of insurance is low on the list, at least for most doctors.
"This has not been the case for a long time. Actually I don't know how long HIPPA has been around but it's not the case any more."
Having access and being able to afford insurance are two different things. Many people would be amazed how much their insurance would cost if they had to pay it out of their own pocket.
"What if we don't want to give money? what if we want to actually DO something ourselves using our own talents?"
:) Or write letters to your congresscritter, your state legislator and/or the appropriate federal/state agency.
Then study to be a lawyer
If the opposing side has lawyers, you generally need one too. Hell, even to get basic government services like worker's compensation you often need a lawyer.
Lawyers seem to be the socially accepted (mandated) way to solve problems today.
"Corporations, ultimately, do not pay taxes. Which is why it makes sense to drastically *lower* the tax rate for corporations"
Only if they can pass the cost to the consumer. Not all companies can effectively do this (if there is much competition). And lowering rates does not mean goods will become cheaper-the company may just pocket the difference, pay less attention to efficiency, etc.
"That would at least reduce the incentive for corporations to offshore and seek tax havens, increasing their investments in Americans and American infrastructure."
So would punitive measures and enforcement. Won't happen. In any case, if a corporation is considered a person, it is reasonable to tax it. Now if corporations didn't have essentially the same rights as a person, I wouldn't have an issue if it didn't pay taxes.
"Bottom line for this "Internet Tax" issue: if it doesn't apply to catalog sales, it shouldn't apply to Internet sales. Sales out of state are sales out of state, regardless of the means of delivery of the sale."
But it does apply to catalog sales and internet sales. If the seller does not collect the tax, then the buyer must report and pay the sales tax in Washington State if they live there. At least according to the State....
"Good employees where like finding needles in a haystack."
Pretty much true for any large electronics/computer store.
"Then they bought out good Guy's. They took away the commissions, and fired 95 percent of the sales staff who all ended up in better jobs."
Speaking of incompetent morons... The large commissions made them slimes. Glad to see them go.
Online stores have better selection, price, and often service. No wonder places like CompUSA fail.
As I work in Washington and have NEVER heard about this, could you please provide the RCW that covers this?
Or is this just another "I heard it from someone, who heard it from someone, etc."? Most people have no clue what is mandated by law, even when their jobs require it.
"...you are working for and with individuals that you may meet again in your career."
Assuming that you respect them. Or ever want to work with them again.
If they weren't professional to begin with, there is probably nothing to lose...
"The optics used in cell phone cameras are certainly a lot better then disposable cameras cheap plastic optics yet those cameras were extremely popular before..."
Sorry, but the disposable cameras take better pictures than cell phones.
"Powerpoint and other slides are terrible for lectures."
Absolutely. But the students want them. So they get them....
"Blackboards are under-rated."
My best teachers used them well.
I just wish the notion that learning is or should be "fun" would go away. Learning is hard work. Often boring. The results may be fun, but not the process. Of course, there is nothing wrong with having fun while learning. The best teachers seem to manage the correct balance.
"Basically what I'm saying is that electric/hydrogen power has efficiency and environmental advantages now, but also has the potential for vast improvements in the future and that's even if you keep the exact same car!"
Huh? Hydrogen is most likely to come from coal or petroluem. Why not just burn it directly. Hydrogen might help the local environment but it will have a net negative overall. Until we get electricity to cheap to meter....
The best use of hydrogen is in refining-produce more fuel with less of the waste.
Hydrogen for cars is a solution waiting for a problem.
"Lack of updates should never be misconstrued as meaning there is a system bug that has yet to be fixed."
Ever hear of the phrase "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"?
"The only people I have ever know to take issue with DUI check points were people who had a tendency to drive while intoxicated."
I take isssue with them. They are a PR stunt/waste of resources. I encountered a roadblock once in Ohio. Approximately ten officers for about four hours. Read the stats in the newspaper-about four arrests for DUI (from memory, could be off a bit). Lots of other infractions though....
And they were announced in the paper before they occurred.
If you want to catch drunk drivers, you simply need to frequent the areas around bars. That generally doesn't happen. Curious.
"You can even question the law enforcement officers judgment, but don't expect a jury to take the word of an ignorant drunk over a respect officer of the court..."
That is the problem. Cops are assumed by many people to be perfect or close to it. I have known some cops. And for the most part I haven't been impressed. They weren't impressed by other cops either. The reality is that an officers opinion is rated higher than a typical citizen. There is little good reason for this. I doubt the officer is any more respectable than the drunk and it certainly shouldn't be the assumption.
Remember, most cops don't know the law.
"First I'll point out that I don't drink and drive, I think it's stupid and after the one time I did it I realized what a complete mistake it was, and that was with no one being hurt and everything actually working out just fine."
By the way, you do drink and drive-you just haven't done it lately.
The problem is the low BAC levels for DUI. Lack of sleep is just as dangerous. Distractions are nearly as dangerous. I would bet a large sum that nearly everyone drives under one of those conditions as least as often as driving after drinking. But those are hard to prove so no one bothers.
"I keep a spare set of keys in one of those magnetic things in my wheel well just in case I accidentally lock my keys in my car. Remind me not to go drinking in Canada."
Most of the US is the same way....
Sorry to kill the buzz.
"The problem is that with heroin at your local CVS, you're going to have a hard time convincing people that drug use is morally wrong, and you can't scare them anymore with jail time, etc. You, honestly, are crazy if you think that most people don't use drugs because of a levelheaded decision involving the relevant health related pros and cons that tells them it's a bad idea. Like I said, that way overestimates the quality of the average person. I don't care that you can make that call, the unfortunate fact of the matter is that most people can't, and won't."
So what? There is no good reason to consider drug use morally wrong. Most of the population uses drugs-they just happen to use the legal ones.
It's the actions of people who use various drugs that is the problem. Smokers and heavy drinkers are a much greater threat than those who use illegal drugs.
"Another issue (and I'm sure this has been mentioned by others), is background noise."
I currently use voice recognition in a warehouse-and I would love to have only a 5% error rate. Considering the limited commands used, the template set up time, etc, it sucks a great deal. As you noted, once you introduce background noise, it really sucks. But it also fails in quiet environments. It regulary fails to pick up commands, confuses them (two and zero, eight and vehicle horns), and picks up other users.
Did I mention it sucks?
But it is slightly faster, so we are stuck with it. Just waiting for someone to "accidently" run over the voice unit with a lift....)
"No, one exception does not prove a rule wrong."
Rules with many exceptions aren't terribly useful.... The primary reason to see a doctor results from the state granting a monopoly on prescriptions. If I need a prescription drug, I have to go to a doctor. Even when I know more about the condition than the doctor (which is typical).
"You communicate?! Are you accepting new patients? I'm tired of doctors throwing pills at me. :-)"
:)
Actually, I would like a doctor that would throw pills at me. It would be an improvement
"I think his point is, rather, that if your currency is not backed by something of value (e.g gold) and then the value of it floats around, it is far too easy to have that value withheld from you in an instant, as you actually don't own anything except paper banknotes.
Not an unreasonable point, if that IS what he's getting at."
Debatable. Gold has value for the same reason paper money has value. People value gold. While gold is finite, it isn't very rare-we could destroy the value of gold if we desired. Paper money is backed by the US government. As long as people value the US government, its money will be valuable. Both gold and paper money fluctuates in value.
If the US goverment collapses, gold isn't going to be very useful. You don't eat it, it's hard to transport, people will want to take it from you, etc.
"As complicated as the US tax code is, this is the BEST advice for anyone above the poverty level."
Only if the time saved is worth the money spent. Or if you really have a complicated return (business owner for instance). Or are a blithering idiot.
Tens of million of people can fill out the 1040 form and be done with it faster than getting the info to the preparer. Add this to the fact that two preparers will likely get different answers for the same dataset if it has any significant complexity....
If you have only W2 forms and a few basic deductions the tax return takes less than an hour.
Now what really sucks are the companies that take months to send W2 forms.
"Once you get past the surface, the tax laws are not clear. Many of them use phrases like "reasonable proof" or "adequate documentation", or doing something by "industry standards", or "commonly accepted methods". You have to be an experienced accountant to have some idea what those phrases mean, and that meaning may change depending on which IRS agent you talk to."
Those phrases are perfectly clear. If they aren't then you shouldn't be taking the deduction (and probably don't have sufficient documentation to give to an accountant anyway).
If you wouldn't feel comfortable getting audited, then you don't have "reasonable proof" or "adquate documentation".
"Ehm, Pilsner is a kind of lager. Besides, I doubt it's an American favorite. Americans don't really drink beer very much."
:)
Actually lagers are popular in America. Budweiser, Miller, etc all make them. I wouldn't consider them (good) beer, so I could agree that Americans don't really drink beer much
"If you had a mechanic out to look at your car, what do you think their reaction would be if you turned round and say "Oh go and fill it up with gas for me too"."
I don't think it would be an issue. Because they would charge their normal hourly rate and an inflated cost for the gas. Easy money.
Computer users generally don't see the cost of their actions. If they did, and were held accountable, things would change.
"Nevertheless, it's one of the most basic ways that we learn--try it and see what happens."
:)
Unfortunately many people are unwilling or unable to do that. Lacking this ability is not limited to computers and operating systems. I would consider it common sense-apparently it isn't so common
"I never understood how someone who drives a car, or for that matter uses electricity generated by the burning of fuels, can complain about second hand smoke with a straight face."
:)
For the same reason I don't have a problem with smokers smoking in public. I never felt the urge to pipe my car exhaust into an enclosed space. YMMV