Uhhhh - yes, there is something immoral about tax avoidance. Virtually all of the schemes used to avoid taxes were lobbied for by corporations, and often enough, bribes changed hands before the immoral laws were passed, making avoidance possible.
Simple loopholes that were never intended to start with might be addressed by representatives, but again, corporations are all over that, handing out bribes to prevent the closure of loopholes.
We didn't get where we are today by accident. The state of international taxes has been intentionally created and nourished by international corporations.
And, this state of affairs is indeed morally reprehensible.
You do realize that millions of investors in this nation do not realize an ROI at all? A Mom and Pop convenience store may not turn a "profit" at all, instead merely supplying Mom and Pop with a stable occupation and a living salary. They "invested" as little as a few thousand dollars, or as much as a half million dollars, and the only real ROI is that they are their own bosses, with a stable job that they enjoy.
What are "total sales"? First you'll have to define that.
It's been a long time since I studied business administration, but I remember terms like "net income" and "gross income". Maybe "cumulative net sales". But, "total sales"? Not a meaningful term, among accountants. And, your use of the term makes me question your qualifications to argue your position.
All costs are always passed on to the end customer. You're not saying anything new here.
SAVINGS, on the other hand, are seldom passed on to the consumer.
In the case of most international companies, they have been saving millions, even billions, in taxes, simply by incorporating some legal fictions into the book keeping. Routing your profits through Luxembourg? Huh, WTF? If you sell products in the UK, you need to pay the appropriate taxes on the products, on the services, on the profits realized in the UK. Ditto if you're doing business in Mongolia, Yemen, Bangladesh, or on Mars.
Amazon has had a loophole closed on them, so they are going to stop cheating the UK out of taxes owed. It's not a new cost. They've been collecting enough money from customers all along to pay those taxes. Now - the profit margin dips a little. Big deal.
Bingo. You shouldn't have to have an IQ of 300 to understand the process, or to use it. You shouldn't even have to have an IQ of 100. A lot of not-so-bright people live in this country after all. Probably 150 million or more. After all, 100 is the median IQ, right? Half or more of all Americans have IQ's equal to or lower than 100.
LOL, of course I'm not the only person on earth. But, I may be one of the smartest. I'm not the ONLY person who refuses to play these DRM games. Which is smarter, the rats that run the maze, or the rats that simply refuse to run, knowing they'll be fed just the same after the tests?
"Microsoft was already nearing monopoly position in the PC market"
Really? I never operated a Microsoft OS until Win 95 was coming out. THEN MS started dominating, and I was more or less forced to investigate how and why MS-DOS was any better than TRS-DOS, or any other DOS. I investigated Windows 1 point something, up through Windows 3.11, then finally Windows 95. My PREFERRED OS was DR-DOS. And, if I'm going to load any DOS, it's still going to be DR-DOS.
Windows 95 and then 98 gave MS their market dominance. And, let us remember the dirty tricks played against DR-DOS - "Check for MS-DOS, if not present, refuse to install, echo to screen "You must upgrade to a real operating system to run MS Windows". Or, words to that effect, anyway.
Yeah, I have. Not terribly recently, but - - - well, lemme check it right now.
guy# timedatectl
Local time: Fri 2015-05-22 12:44:05 CDT
Universal time: Fri 2015-05-22 17:44:05 UTC
RTC time: Fri 2015-05-22 12:44:05
Time zone: America/Chicago (CDT, -0500)
NTP enabled: yes NTP synchronized: yes
RTC in local TZ: yes
DST active: yes
Last DST change: DST began at
Sun 2015-03-08 01:59:59 CST
Sun 2015-03-08 03:00:00 CDT
Next DST change: DST ends (the clock jumps one hour backwards) at
Sun 2015-11-01 01:59:59 CDT
Sun 2015-11-01 01:00:00 CST
Warning: The RTC is configured to maintain time in the local time zone. This
mode is not fully supported and will create various problems with time
zone changes and daylight saving time adjustments. If at all possible, use
RTC in UTC by calling 'timedatectl set-local-rtc 0'.
LOL @ the phones and tablets with half gig of ram. The wife decided she wanted a tablet. She wanted no input from me, she was going to do this all on her own. When it finally arrived, she was enthralled with it for a week or so. Install a couple "apps" and her memory was gone, and she's caching to disk, waiting MINUTES for a page to load.
When she bought a desktop, she handled that very much the same way. She sent me several links, and asked me to pick the best. I sent back the "best" link, and bluntly told her that if she didn't get AT LEAST 8 GB of memory, she was wasting her time. Argue, fuss, complain that I'm just trying to spend her money, blah, blah, blah - until I reminded her how much money she wasted on her tablet.
So, yeah, I'm with you on the memory - I need to upgrade. A second or third generation dual core Opteron at 1.8 Ghz and 4 gig of ram is ancient history these days.
Click the link, and read. Browse the forum. They are very upfront about the fact that they are NOT Firefox, haven't been for some time, and never will be again. I think that fits the definition of "fork".
Did you create a new profile, or did you try to run IceCat over top of your Firefox browser profile? That IS one method to force a FF-like browser to crash.
End users. Customers. Consumers. The unwashed masses. The advertisers don't pay for anything - they skim money off of you and me, and half a billion other end users, then they imaginatively put some infinitesimal part of that money to use giving away "free stuff". TANSTAAFL
There are plenty of suckers out there who have no concept of privacy or anonymity. So - along with fifty million other users, I deprive Mozilla of an income stream that they imagined that they were entitled to. Are they going to notice? All fifty million of us together aren't hurting Mozilla any at all.
Maybe you meant to say "Iron Browser" rather than Chrome. The official Chrome or Chromium from Google scoops up more data than Firefox even dreams about.
"Features" are in the eye of the beholder. If I need DRM to access a site, I just move on to something more interesting and/or important. I simply do not play that game. If I wanted to be digitally restricted, I could always get caught robbing a bank, and spend several years in prison, right?
I suspect that a lot of people THINK in pictorial form. When I want to go to slashdot.org, I type slashdot.org. Yeah, the browser autocompletes for me, but I continue typing the address in. I've been doing it that way since before there was a Firefox, it's a habit that I see no need, or even a desire to break.
Wonder how many slashdotters couldn't find slashdot without a shortcut? The idea is hilarious, IMHO.
Mmmm. Vivaldi on Linux doesn't seem to work real well. Additionally, creating an account and logging in to the vivaldi website simply doesn't work for me.
Something's wrong here, if the next great browser is incapable of designing a working website.
But - since you reminded me that it's on my machine, maybe I'll fire it up again today to see if anything has changed . . .
Nope - first attempt to login gives me a message "Session expired, please log in again." Second attempt says username and password don't match.
The memory is there to be used - you're entirely correct. I cannot fault you for that. But, when the system has 4 gig of memory, and Firefox is using 60% of that memory - IT IS SIMPLY TO MUCH!
I recently installed Pale Moon. I've not yet seen Pale Moon using 25% of system memory. I have a lot of tabs open right now, and Palemoon is using 17% of system memory. Enlightenment and Palemoon are constantly swapping places for top memory usage position in htop. The only other process that competes, is lightdm . This means that I can fire up a lot more applications, or I can actually do some compiling while the browser runs.
Yeah, I have memory, but it's MINE to decide how to use, not Mozilla's.
And, yes, this IS part of the reason I switched to Pale Moon. The subject of TFS and TFA are another reason. And - I'm also an adventurous type. I'll run any browser that comes along - if it behaves as I wish it to.
You mean from cross site scripting? Yeah - I do have an idea. And, I block it unless I actually decide that I want to see what is on those other sites.
But, even with most cross site scripting, the total content of the page is often only a fraction of the advertising content, in terms of bandwidth.
You try it. Wander the web for some hours, or a day, or a week, and keep track of your bandwidth usage. Then install something like uBlock, and wander the web. You bandwidth usage will drop significantly. At the same time, if you kept track of your CPU and memory usage, those will drop as well, although less significantly.
Advertisers put your equipment as well as your bandwidth usage to full use, and all for something that I have no desire to see.
Slashdot Mirror
We need these guys to work on Firefox. Chromium too! Hell, just turn them loose on Windows!
Uhhhh - yes, there is something immoral about tax avoidance. Virtually all of the schemes used to avoid taxes were lobbied for by corporations, and often enough, bribes changed hands before the immoral laws were passed, making avoidance possible.
Simple loopholes that were never intended to start with might be addressed by representatives, but again, corporations are all over that, handing out bribes to prevent the closure of loopholes.
We didn't get where we are today by accident. The state of international taxes has been intentionally created and nourished by international corporations.
And, this state of affairs is indeed morally reprehensible.
"I expect a certain return on that investment."
And, what do you deem to be an adequate ROI?
You do realize that millions of investors in this nation do not realize an ROI at all? A Mom and Pop convenience store may not turn a "profit" at all, instead merely supplying Mom and Pop with a stable occupation and a living salary. They "invested" as little as a few thousand dollars, or as much as a half million dollars, and the only real ROI is that they are their own bosses, with a stable job that they enjoy.
What are "total sales"? First you'll have to define that.
It's been a long time since I studied business administration, but I remember terms like "net income" and "gross income". Maybe "cumulative net sales". But, "total sales"? Not a meaningful term, among accountants. And, your use of the term makes me question your qualifications to argue your position.
All costs are always passed on to the end customer. You're not saying anything new here.
SAVINGS, on the other hand, are seldom passed on to the consumer.
In the case of most international companies, they have been saving millions, even billions, in taxes, simply by incorporating some legal fictions into the book keeping. Routing your profits through Luxembourg? Huh, WTF? If you sell products in the UK, you need to pay the appropriate taxes on the products, on the services, on the profits realized in the UK. Ditto if you're doing business in Mongolia, Yemen, Bangladesh, or on Mars.
Amazon has had a loophole closed on them, so they are going to stop cheating the UK out of taxes owed. It's not a new cost. They've been collecting enough money from customers all along to pay those taxes. Now - the profit margin dips a little. Big deal.
Bingo. You shouldn't have to have an IQ of 300 to understand the process, or to use it. You shouldn't even have to have an IQ of 100. A lot of not-so-bright people live in this country after all. Probably 150 million or more. After all, 100 is the median IQ, right? Half or more of all Americans have IQ's equal to or lower than 100.
So - you'll be voting for Clinton?
LOL, of course I'm not the only person on earth. But, I may be one of the smartest. I'm not the ONLY person who refuses to play these DRM games. Which is smarter, the rats that run the maze, or the rats that simply refuse to run, knowing they'll be fed just the same after the tests?
"Microsoft was already nearing monopoly position in the PC market"
Really? I never operated a Microsoft OS until Win 95 was coming out. THEN MS started dominating, and I was more or less forced to investigate how and why MS-DOS was any better than TRS-DOS, or any other DOS. I investigated Windows 1 point something, up through Windows 3.11, then finally Windows 95. My PREFERRED OS was DR-DOS. And, if I'm going to load any DOS, it's still going to be DR-DOS.
Windows 95 and then 98 gave MS their market dominance. And, let us remember the dirty tricks played against DR-DOS - "Check for MS-DOS, if not present, refuse to install, echo to screen "You must upgrade to a real operating system to run MS Windows". Or, words to that effect, anyway.
It creates that directory in the Mozilla directory because it's from Mozilla. And, it is probably using the same profile that Firefox uses.
When running multiple versions of browsers that are related, you really need to create a separate profile for each of those browsers.
If you should installl Chrome, then install SRware Iron Browser, the same thing will happen - Iron will use your Chrome profile.
Yeah, I have. Not terribly recently, but - - - well, lemme check it right now.
guy# timedatectl
Local time: Fri 2015-05-22 12:44:05 CDT
Universal time: Fri 2015-05-22 17:44:05 UTC
RTC time: Fri 2015-05-22 12:44:05
Time zone: America/Chicago (CDT, -0500)
NTP enabled: yes
NTP synchronized: yes
RTC in local TZ: yes
DST active: yes
Last DST change: DST began at
Sun 2015-03-08 01:59:59 CST
Sun 2015-03-08 03:00:00 CDT
Next DST change: DST ends (the clock jumps one hour backwards) at
Sun 2015-11-01 01:59:59 CDT
Sun 2015-11-01 01:00:00 CST
Warning: The RTC is configured to maintain time in the local time zone. This
mode is not fully supported and will create various problems with time
zone changes and daylight saving time adjustments. If at all possible, use
RTC in UTC by calling 'timedatectl set-local-rtc 0'.
LOL @ the phones and tablets with half gig of ram. The wife decided she wanted a tablet. She wanted no input from me, she was going to do this all on her own. When it finally arrived, she was enthralled with it for a week or so. Install a couple "apps" and her memory was gone, and she's caching to disk, waiting MINUTES for a page to load.
When she bought a desktop, she handled that very much the same way. She sent me several links, and asked me to pick the best. I sent back the "best" link, and bluntly told her that if she didn't get AT LEAST 8 GB of memory, she was wasting her time. Argue, fuss, complain that I'm just trying to spend her money, blah, blah, blah - until I reminded her how much money she wasted on her tablet.
So, yeah, I'm with you on the memory - I need to upgrade. A second or third generation dual core Opteron at 1.8 Ghz and 4 gig of ram is ancient history these days.
Uhhhhh - no, it doesn't work with "all firefox extensions". Many, yes, all, no.
https://www.palemoon.org/
Click the link, and read. Browse the forum. They are very upfront about the fact that they are NOT Firefox, haven't been for some time, and never will be again. I think that fits the definition of "fork".
That would make a great bumper sticker. Even better, a bumper sticker on a police car.
Did you create a new profile, or did you try to run IceCat over top of your Firefox browser profile? That IS one method to force a FF-like browser to crash.
"Who do you think is paying for the free stuff?"
End users. Customers. Consumers. The unwashed masses. The advertisers don't pay for anything - they skim money off of you and me, and half a billion other end users, then they imaginatively put some infinitesimal part of that money to use giving away "free stuff". TANSTAAFL
Next, browsers will come with a disclaimer: "Epileptic persons should not use this browser."
There are plenty of suckers out there who have no concept of privacy or anonymity. So - along with fifty million other users, I deprive Mozilla of an income stream that they imagined that they were entitled to. Are they going to notice? All fifty million of us together aren't hurting Mozilla any at all.
Maybe you meant to say "Iron Browser" rather than Chrome. The official Chrome or Chromium from Google scoops up more data than Firefox even dreams about.
http://www.srware.net/en/softw...
Yeah, I like Iron pretty well, but I'm growing to like Pale Moon better.
https://www.palemoon.org/
And, if those don't suit you, you can always go with this one.
http://lynx.browser.org/
The memory footprint for that last one is almost invisible on a 4 GB system!
"Features" are in the eye of the beholder. If I need DRM to access a site, I just move on to something more interesting and/or important. I simply do not play that game. If I wanted to be digitally restricted, I could always get caught robbing a bank, and spend several years in prison, right?
I suspect that a lot of people THINK in pictorial form. When I want to go to slashdot.org, I type slashdot.org. Yeah, the browser autocompletes for me, but I continue typing the address in. I've been doing it that way since before there was a Firefox, it's a habit that I see no need, or even a desire to break.
Wonder how many slashdotters couldn't find slashdot without a shortcut? The idea is hilarious, IMHO.
Mmmm. Vivaldi on Linux doesn't seem to work real well. Additionally, creating an account and logging in to the vivaldi website simply doesn't work for me.
Something's wrong here, if the next great browser is incapable of designing a working website.
But - since you reminded me that it's on my machine, maybe I'll fire it up again today to see if anything has changed . . .
Nope - first attempt to login gives me a message "Session expired, please log in again." Second attempt says username and password don't match.
Ehhhh . . .
The memory is there to be used - you're entirely correct. I cannot fault you for that. But, when the system has 4 gig of memory, and Firefox is using 60% of that memory - IT IS SIMPLY TO MUCH!
I recently installed Pale Moon. I've not yet seen Pale Moon using 25% of system memory. I have a lot of tabs open right now, and Palemoon is using 17% of system memory. Enlightenment and Palemoon are constantly swapping places for top memory usage position in htop. The only other process that competes, is lightdm . This means that I can fire up a lot more applications, or I can actually do some compiling while the browser runs.
Yeah, I have memory, but it's MINE to decide how to use, not Mozilla's.
And, yes, this IS part of the reason I switched to Pale Moon. The subject of TFS and TFA are another reason. And - I'm also an adventurous type. I'll run any browser that comes along - if it behaves as I wish it to.
You mean from cross site scripting? Yeah - I do have an idea. And, I block it unless I actually decide that I want to see what is on those other sites.
But, even with most cross site scripting, the total content of the page is often only a fraction of the advertising content, in terms of bandwidth.
You try it. Wander the web for some hours, or a day, or a week, and keep track of your bandwidth usage. Then install something like uBlock, and wander the web. You bandwidth usage will drop significantly. At the same time, if you kept track of your CPU and memory usage, those will drop as well, although less significantly.
Advertisers put your equipment as well as your bandwidth usage to full use, and all for something that I have no desire to see.