I'm sorry, but this is another example of large-scale corporate tax avoidance. Every week, we hear stories about how state, local and even the national government is swimming in debt. When large US-based corporations are able to avoid collecting taxes, it is yet another sign that the US economy is in failure mode. The taxes you pay keep your roads repaired, pay for public schools, police, fire and other benefits. If large corporate institutions are able to weasel out of paying taxes, guess who the tax bill falls on? You, citizen.
Until corporations are held liable to pair their fair share of taxes, the US economic system will continue to remain deep in debt and all of us will end up with the bailout bill. GE, I'm looking at you too... if anyone remembers, there was a news story not long ago that GE's 2010 corporate tax bill was $0. ZERO! A corporation that makes billions in profit paid no taxes in the US last year. How is this fair? Why do we continue to let big corporations make vast boatloads of money, yet contribute nothing in taxes to help society as a whole?
What does it say about the US tax code when a highly complex mathematical simulation is required in order to straighten it out?
As others have said, scrap the system and start over. Give a blanket rate and limit the number and types of exemptions. As an EU citizen and US ex-pat, the tax code here is MUCH more simple, as others have pointed out. Once you get over the sticker shock of seeing your taxes upfront (holy crap... 23% VAT? WTF?), it actually works out better in the long run and costs you less. We also don't bury hidden taxes in everyday goods and services, it's all there up-front.
rant_mode This is another peeve of mine, the US sales tax system. Why for the love of god, can't you add the sales tax to the advertised price? Everyone KNOWS they have to pay sales tax. Why the fuck do you add it at checkout, but not on the shelf or online shop? In the EU, any advertised price has to INCLUDE ALL THE TAXES you must pay when you purchase something. This includes things like airline tickets... ever considered how many taxes the airlines tack on on top of the advertised price? It's ridiculous, but at least here you see the ACTUAL AMOUNT YOU WILL PAY in the advertised price. No burying hidden costs in taxes, tacked on at the last minute./rant_mode
... and cheap. After living abroad for 11 years, I'd also say the food portions in America are huge, compared to much of the rest of the world. It's no wonder there is an obesity epidemic in the US, with fast, cheap food and big portions. Every time I go visit family in the US, I inevitably gain a few pounds. It's an excessive food culture.
Wow, you better check your history. The USA certainly did not "beat" the USSR. The USSR collapsed, mostly from within. Why do you think it is referred to as the "collapse of the Soviet Union"?
Now, you could say the USA outlasted the USSR and that would be factually correct, but saying the USA beat the USSR is factually inaccurate on so many levels.
I have been running a dual monitor setup at work for close to 10 years now, first with analog CRT's (big and heavy) and now widescreen LCD's. I constantly use both even though I am not a developer. Being able to review documents while typing notes into an email, comparing two documents side-by-side or just multi-tasking really requires the space. I currently run two 22" monitors at 1680x1050 (each). I feel this is a good compromise of size vs. cost, and I know I am more productive.
If I could consolidate onto one large monitor, like a 30", it would be nicer in some respects, but the cost is prohibitive compared to 2 smaller (or rather mid-sized) monitors in dual-screen mode. The additional screen space on a 30" is marginal, but getting rid of the bezel in the middle would be an improvement and also the higher resolution of the 30" LCD. Unfortunately, due to manufacturing economics of LCD panels, the cost of a single large LCD is unlikely to approach 2 smaller ones anytime in the near future.
I totally agree with many of the posts; if your company won't pay the tiny cost of a 2nd monitor to make you more productive and content at doing your job, you are working for the wrong company. I would go so far as to buy my own second monitor to use at work, while bringing my resume up to date and looking for a new company to work for.
I totally agree with Gabe on game pricing, when the pricing we are talking about is how much the gamer pays, with the price varying based on the market they reside in. For example, a gamer in China or a developing nation should be able to pay less for a game than someone from EU or the USA. The average salary in emerging markets does not allow for paying the same price as we do in the EU or USA (or Korea, Japan, etc.). I believe this is a major driving factor behind game and software piracy in these countries. The average consumer just can't afford to pay what we can, and so they pirate the game. It has been shown time and again, if you offer something at a reasonable and fair price, more often than not people will pay for it. When the price of something you really want is out of reach and easy to get by illegal means with little risk, then piracy happens. The challenge of this is if you offer products for a lower price in specific markets, how do you prevent the lower-cost version of the product from being sold in a market where the price is higher? Steam seems to handle this pretty well, but it's still a potential issue.
However, I totally disagree with Gabe on his server/online pricing scheme. This is just creating a way for people to literally "game" the system for profit. You are incentivizing bad behavior whenever you put a price tag on something that someone can manipulate based on their actions. Online gaming will become less about playing the game itself and more about how to game it for profit (or lower cost). This will ruin online gaming and it will not work.
No, it merely underscores that we do not *have* a "modern" nuclear age.
People, please remember that the vast majority of nuclear reactors in use were built in the 50's and 60's. They were built based on early reactor designs. Reactor designs have improved considerably in the last 20 years but because the public basically has a "no nukes" position, very few new design reactors have actually been built. We are still basically running old reactor designs, many of which are long past their design lifetimes. Until we replace them with modern, safer reactor designs or forms of renewable energy, there will be a danger of another Fukushima/Chernobyl type of catastrophe.
Above post is obviously meant to be taken tongue-in-cheek, but if this was in the US, I guarantee they would get a visit from DHS and likely charged with something terrorism-related. You can't even take pictures of planes near airports anymore in the US without getting arrested. I'm still surprised the flight crews don't go ape-shit when people take snapshots through airplane windows during flights. I mean, the pictures could be used by terrorists...:P
"Laying" in this context typically means buried cable, in other words medium-to-long or longer-distance runs. Even cable that costs $10's per foot, costs much more than that per foot when you factor in the heavy equipment needed to dig the trench and the manpower to physically lay the cable.
You should do your own research into the corporate fascism that has evolved out of unrestricted free market capitalism in the US over the last 50+ years. I think you'll have a bit different view afterwards. Unless you are at the top of the food chain, you are getting far less than you should out of so-called "capitalism". Look to the broken financial and investment models, broken healthcare system and the fact that your corporate masters control everything from the legal system to the food you put on your table. It's sickening.
I would add that upscaled Wii 480p SD using a high quality upscaler looks fine on a 1080p HDTV. I have a highend Sony ES receiver with a Faroudja video processor which does very high quality upscaling to 1080p. I have 2 SD sources, a Wii and a PS2 (occasionally used for DVD's), and I'm really happy with the image quality. From my sofa which is about 15 feet from my 40" HDTV, upscaled DVD approaches blu-ray visual quality, though it cannot match the dynamic range and color depth of blu-ray. And yes, I have a blu-ray to compare it against.
Also, upgrading the Wii video cable from the cheap bundled composite cable (single cable carrying both audio and video) to a component cable (5 individual cables, 3 for video and 2 for audio) helps considerably with the image quality when you want to output to an HDTV. I also use a component cable for my PS2. Composite is the lowest common denominator type of video cable and should be avoided at all costs if you want high image quality. I don't allow any composite cables in my home theater system.
If you are using the crappy built-in upscaler of your HDTV or PC display, then I understand.
I ran Novell servers on generic PC hardware (i386 cpu's with 16MB RAM) in the early 90's, starting with 3.11 and then migrating to 4.1 some time later. They were crazy reliable, going easily 1000 days or more between reboots. When the company I was working for moved to another state and I chose to stay behind, the new local guy they hired didn't know Novell so it was replaced with NT 4.0. Damn servers had to be rebooted almost daily to keep them working properly. Server maintenance went from being a side-task done by myself while I concentrated on other things to being a full time job for one IT guy. Gotta love progress.
A few hundred dollars for the gear needed for a professional quality recording studio? Really? I call bullshit. Unless to you an iPhone is a professional recording studio (I have news for you, it isn't).
Even setting up a good quality home studio for one instrument will easily set you back a few thousand, if you want good results. You will need microphones (good ones are not cheap), cables, a mixing desk or an audio workstation for mixing (and mastering if you intend to publish) and while there is some free audio software for Linux, it doesn't mean you can set up everything for no cost. I speak from experience as I have personally built a home recording studio. Obviously, you haven't.
Here in Finland, internet access has been a right now for more than a year. I believe also some other countries in the EU have similar rights.
Too many posts here are wrongly confusing a right with something you get for free. Just because it's a right, does not mean it costs you nothing. I have a legal right to be provided access to the internet. I do not expect to get such access for free. Just like access to clean water and electricity, these are also rights for which I have to pay to receive.
What it means is that the government cannot take my internet access away or force me to be disconnected from the internet. I have a right as a citizen to have access to the internet and that cannot be taken away legally.
Very fair I'd say. Especially when Google has been caught re-handed in multiple countries with data sniffed from unsecured access points collected without any user consent.
Sure, you can argue all you want that unsecured connections are bad, but that does not justify widespread data collection like Google was doing via their street view cars. They were doing something they should not be and got caught. The worst part is their defense, at least in the beginning... that they did not know they were collecting data. Pure BS and they should have gotten slapped a lot harder for that breach of privacy.
Whomever would pay 70 FUCKING DOLLARS for either of these seriously needs their head examined. Or just shoot them and put them out of their misery, they cannot be saved.
Agree 100%. As a playback format there is really nothing inherently wrong with CD audio's 16-bit/44.1KHz encoding. The problem is the crappy mastering we have today and the insane amounts of compression. Note, do not confuse this use of the term "compression" with audio codecs, we are talking about dynamic range compression here not FLAC or MP3. This dynamic range compression does FAR more damage to the audio quality than would benefit from 24-bit/96KHz or higher so-called "HD" audio formats vs. redbook CD audio.
Now if you are RECORDING music, higher bit-depth/bit-rate formats are very useful during recording as they increase the precision available when editing and lower the generational losses when multiple edits are performed before mastering. The final downsample to 16-bit/44.1KHz does little to alter the quality at the end. In fact, the audio quality has already been degraded before that final downsample by the insane amounts of compression today's producers feel they need to use to keep up the loudness war.
Totally disagree. I live in the EU, use Spotify and still buy my music on CD. I rarely purchase music electronically, unless it's in a DRM-free lossless format like FLAC. For me, Spotify is simply an online replacement for FM radio. It does not replace my need to buy music or keep it cataloged at home on my media server. I can't use Spotify in my car, and I don't like the idea of streaming it over my mobile phone. Also, Spotify uses lossy compression and bitrates are very low compared to FLAC. It is definitely far from audiophile quality and barely a step above FM radio in terms of audio quality.
To be sure, most people use horrible speakers/amps/headphones to listen to music. The fact is, you CAN hear the difference, quite a lot in fact, when you use good equipment. It has been proven time and again in double-blind testing. However, such a result requires high quality components to reproduce the dynamics, impact and feel of the music. I am NOT talking about BS like $500 cables, which are a total sham. I'm talking about the components that matter... speakers, amps and receivers, playback components, headphones. The average consumer-level quality of these is pretty poor from a sound quality perspective and it's not the fault of consumers, they just haven't heard better or know that there is a better. And for many people, what they have is "good enough". It's also a proven fact that some people have better or more sensitive hearing and will hear the difference where someone else may not.
ReplayGain, while not a cure for the original problem, at least helps considerably. It may not restore the missing dynamics, but it does help with the annoying "feature" of playing back a mix of tracks from different albums where the volume can jump all over the place, especially when playing back music from the 60's and 70's before the loudness war really took over.
I wish today's producers would get the fact that they are destroying the music they are supposedly making in the first place. It's totally unnecessary but I lay the blame on most of the younger generation's ADD-like listening habits. Ooooh... louder... must be better. As parent says, we have volume knobs, USE THEM!
Slashdot Mirror
I'm sorry, but this is another example of large-scale corporate tax avoidance. Every week, we hear stories about how state, local and even the national government is swimming in debt. When large US-based corporations are able to avoid collecting taxes, it is yet another sign that the US economy is in failure mode. The taxes you pay keep your roads repaired, pay for public schools, police, fire and other benefits. If large corporate institutions are able to weasel out of paying taxes, guess who the tax bill falls on? You, citizen.
Until corporations are held liable to pair their fair share of taxes, the US economic system will continue to remain deep in debt and all of us will end up with the bailout bill. GE, I'm looking at you too... if anyone remembers, there was a news story not long ago that GE's 2010 corporate tax bill was $0. ZERO! A corporation that makes billions in profit paid no taxes in the US last year. How is this fair? Why do we continue to let big corporations make vast boatloads of money, yet contribute nothing in taxes to help society as a whole?
What does it say about the US tax code when a highly complex mathematical simulation is required in order to straighten it out?
As others have said, scrap the system and start over. Give a blanket rate and limit the number and types of exemptions. As an EU citizen and US ex-pat, the tax code here is MUCH more simple, as others have pointed out. Once you get over the sticker shock of seeing your taxes upfront (holy crap... 23% VAT? WTF?), it actually works out better in the long run and costs you less. We also don't bury hidden taxes in everyday goods and services, it's all there up-front.
rant_mode /rant_mode
This is another peeve of mine, the US sales tax system. Why for the love of god, can't you add the sales tax to the advertised price? Everyone KNOWS they have to pay sales tax. Why the fuck do you add it at checkout, but not on the shelf or online shop? In the EU, any advertised price has to INCLUDE ALL THE TAXES you must pay when you purchase something. This includes things like airline tickets... ever considered how many taxes the airlines tack on on top of the advertised price? It's ridiculous, but at least here you see the ACTUAL AMOUNT YOU WILL PAY in the advertised price. No burying hidden costs in taxes, tacked on at the last minute.
... and cheap. After living abroad for 11 years, I'd also say the food portions in America are huge, compared to much of the rest of the world. It's no wonder there is an obesity epidemic in the US, with fast, cheap food and big portions. Every time I go visit family in the US, I inevitably gain a few pounds. It's an excessive food culture.
Wow, you better check your history. The USA certainly did not "beat" the USSR. The USSR collapsed, mostly from within. Why do you think it is referred to as the "collapse of the Soviet Union"?
Now, you could say the USA outlasted the USSR and that would be factually correct, but saying the USA beat the USSR is factually inaccurate on so many levels.
I have been running a dual monitor setup at work for close to 10 years now, first with analog CRT's (big and heavy) and now widescreen LCD's. I constantly use both even though I am not a developer. Being able to review documents while typing notes into an email, comparing two documents side-by-side or just multi-tasking really requires the space. I currently run two 22" monitors at 1680x1050 (each). I feel this is a good compromise of size vs. cost, and I know I am more productive.
If I could consolidate onto one large monitor, like a 30", it would be nicer in some respects, but the cost is prohibitive compared to 2 smaller (or rather mid-sized) monitors in dual-screen mode. The additional screen space on a 30" is marginal, but getting rid of the bezel in the middle would be an improvement and also the higher resolution of the 30" LCD. Unfortunately, due to manufacturing economics of LCD panels, the cost of a single large LCD is unlikely to approach 2 smaller ones anytime in the near future.
I totally agree with many of the posts; if your company won't pay the tiny cost of a 2nd monitor to make you more productive and content at doing your job, you are working for the wrong company. I would go so far as to buy my own second monitor to use at work, while bringing my resume up to date and looking for a new company to work for.
I totally agree with Gabe on game pricing, when the pricing we are talking about is how much the gamer pays, with the price varying based on the market they reside in. For example, a gamer in China or a developing nation should be able to pay less for a game than someone from EU or the USA. The average salary in emerging markets does not allow for paying the same price as we do in the EU or USA (or Korea, Japan, etc.). I believe this is a major driving factor behind game and software piracy in these countries. The average consumer just can't afford to pay what we can, and so they pirate the game. It has been shown time and again, if you offer something at a reasonable and fair price, more often than not people will pay for it. When the price of something you really want is out of reach and easy to get by illegal means with little risk, then piracy happens. The challenge of this is if you offer products for a lower price in specific markets, how do you prevent the lower-cost version of the product from being sold in a market where the price is higher? Steam seems to handle this pretty well, but it's still a potential issue.
However, I totally disagree with Gabe on his server/online pricing scheme. This is just creating a way for people to literally "game" the system for profit. You are incentivizing bad behavior whenever you put a price tag on something that someone can manipulate based on their actions. Online gaming will become less about playing the game itself and more about how to game it for profit (or lower cost). This will ruin online gaming and it will not work.
No, it merely underscores that we do not *have* a "modern" nuclear age.
People, please remember that the vast majority of nuclear reactors in use were built in the 50's and 60's. They were built based on early reactor designs. Reactor designs have improved considerably in the last 20 years but because the public basically has a "no nukes" position, very few new design reactors have actually been built. We are still basically running old reactor designs, many of which are long past their design lifetimes. Until we replace them with modern, safer reactor designs or forms of renewable energy, there will be a danger of another Fukushima/Chernobyl type of catastrophe.
Above post is obviously meant to be taken tongue-in-cheek, but if this was in the US, I guarantee they would get a visit from DHS and likely charged with something terrorism-related. You can't even take pictures of planes near airports anymore in the US without getting arrested. I'm still surprised the flight crews don't go ape-shit when people take snapshots through airplane windows during flights. I mean, the pictures could be used by terrorists... :P
It's gone beyond silly.
"Laying" in this context typically means buried cable, in other words medium-to-long or longer-distance runs. Even cable that costs $10's per foot, costs much more than that per foot when you factor in the heavy equipment needed to dig the trench and the manpower to physically lay the cable.
You should do your own research into the corporate fascism that has evolved out of unrestricted free market capitalism in the US over the last 50+ years. I think you'll have a bit different view afterwards. Unless you are at the top of the food chain, you are getting far less than you should out of so-called "capitalism". Look to the broken financial and investment models, broken healthcare system and the fact that your corporate masters control everything from the legal system to the food you put on your table. It's sickening.
I would add that upscaled Wii 480p SD using a high quality upscaler looks fine on a 1080p HDTV. I have a highend Sony ES receiver with a Faroudja video processor which does very high quality upscaling to 1080p. I have 2 SD sources, a Wii and a PS2 (occasionally used for DVD's), and I'm really happy with the image quality. From my sofa which is about 15 feet from my 40" HDTV, upscaled DVD approaches blu-ray visual quality, though it cannot match the dynamic range and color depth of blu-ray. And yes, I have a blu-ray to compare it against.
Also, upgrading the Wii video cable from the cheap bundled composite cable (single cable carrying both audio and video) to a component cable (5 individual cables, 3 for video and 2 for audio) helps considerably with the image quality when you want to output to an HDTV. I also use a component cable for my PS2. Composite is the lowest common denominator type of video cable and should be avoided at all costs if you want high image quality. I don't allow any composite cables in my home theater system.
If you are using the crappy built-in upscaler of your HDTV or PC display, then I understand.
Have noticed the same for some time now, ever since the redesign, but hitting it a second time usually works.
Not in a locked iPhone, citizen.
Thankfully some of us live in the EU and outer places where such tactics are illegal and mobile rates are not through the roof.
I ran Novell servers on generic PC hardware (i386 cpu's with 16MB RAM) in the early 90's, starting with 3.11 and then migrating to 4.1 some time later. They were crazy reliable, going easily 1000 days or more between reboots. When the company I was working for moved to another state and I chose to stay behind, the new local guy they hired didn't know Novell so it was replaced with NT 4.0. Damn servers had to be rebooted almost daily to keep them working properly. Server maintenance went from being a side-task done by myself while I concentrated on other things to being a full time job for one IT guy. Gotta love progress.
A few hundred dollars for the gear needed for a professional quality recording studio? Really? I call bullshit. Unless to you an iPhone is a professional recording studio (I have news for you, it isn't).
Even setting up a good quality home studio for one instrument will easily set you back a few thousand, if you want good results. You will need microphones (good ones are not cheap), cables, a mixing desk or an audio workstation for mixing (and mastering if you intend to publish) and while there is some free audio software for Linux, it doesn't mean you can set up everything for no cost. I speak from experience as I have personally built a home recording studio. Obviously, you haven't.
Here in Finland, internet access has been a right now for more than a year. I believe also some other countries in the EU have similar rights.
Too many posts here are wrongly confusing a right with something you get for free. Just because it's a right, does not mean it costs you nothing. I have a legal right to be provided access to the internet. I do not expect to get such access for free. Just like access to clean water and electricity, these are also rights for which I have to pay to receive.
What it means is that the government cannot take my internet access away or force me to be disconnected from the internet. I have a right as a citizen to have access to the internet and that cannot be taken away legally.
How ironic: http://www.worldbackupday.net/
Very fair I'd say. Especially when Google has been caught re-handed in multiple countries with data sniffed from unsecured access points collected without any user consent.
Sure, you can argue all you want that unsecured connections are bad, but that does not justify widespread data collection like Google was doing via their street view cars. They were doing something they should not be and got caught. The worst part is their defense, at least in the beginning... that they did not know they were collecting data. Pure BS and they should have gotten slapped a lot harder for that breach of privacy.
Just because something suddenly has a trendy new name, does not mean the idea is new. We see this effect over and over... move along, nothing to see.
Whomever would pay 70 FUCKING DOLLARS for either of these seriously needs their head examined. Or just shoot them and put them out of their misery, they cannot be saved.
Affordable motorcars can't be used to control a population. At least not directly...
Agree 100%. As a playback format there is really nothing inherently wrong with CD audio's 16-bit/44.1KHz encoding. The problem is the crappy mastering we have today and the insane amounts of compression. Note, do not confuse this use of the term "compression" with audio codecs, we are talking about dynamic range compression here not FLAC or MP3. This dynamic range compression does FAR more damage to the audio quality than would benefit from 24-bit/96KHz or higher so-called "HD" audio formats vs. redbook CD audio.
Now if you are RECORDING music, higher bit-depth/bit-rate formats are very useful during recording as they increase the precision available when editing and lower the generational losses when multiple edits are performed before mastering. The final downsample to 16-bit/44.1KHz does little to alter the quality at the end. In fact, the audio quality has already been degraded before that final downsample by the insane amounts of compression today's producers feel they need to use to keep up the loudness war.
Totally disagree. I live in the EU, use Spotify and still buy my music on CD. I rarely purchase music electronically, unless it's in a DRM-free lossless format like FLAC. For me, Spotify is simply an online replacement for FM radio. It does not replace my need to buy music or keep it cataloged at home on my media server. I can't use Spotify in my car, and I don't like the idea of streaming it over my mobile phone. Also, Spotify uses lossy compression and bitrates are very low compared to FLAC. It is definitely far from audiophile quality and barely a step above FM radio in terms of audio quality.
To be sure, most people use horrible speakers/amps/headphones to listen to music. The fact is, you CAN hear the difference, quite a lot in fact, when you use good equipment. It has been proven time and again in double-blind testing. However, such a result requires high quality components to reproduce the dynamics, impact and feel of the music. I am NOT talking about BS like $500 cables, which are a total sham. I'm talking about the components that matter... speakers, amps and receivers, playback components, headphones. The average consumer-level quality of these is pretty poor from a sound quality perspective and it's not the fault of consumers, they just haven't heard better or know that there is a better. And for many people, what they have is "good enough". It's also a proven fact that some people have better or more sensitive hearing and will hear the difference where someone else may not.
ReplayGain, while not a cure for the original problem, at least helps considerably. It may not restore the missing dynamics, but it does help with the annoying "feature" of playing back a mix of tracks from different albums where the volume can jump all over the place, especially when playing back music from the 60's and 70's before the loudness war really took over.
I wish today's producers would get the fact that they are destroying the music they are supposedly making in the first place. It's totally unnecessary but I lay the blame on most of the younger generation's ADD-like listening habits. Ooooh... louder... must be better. As parent says, we have volume knobs, USE THEM!