The problem with letting corporations have a vote is that people (and corporations) can create an unlimited number of corporations, meaning an unlimited number of votes.
While I can see employers keeping their half of the FICA taxes, it seems quite unlikely that they would try to keep the employee half, which employees can just verify from their old pay stubs.
If I'm not mistaken, even repealing the 16th amendment would still allow Congress to tax the surplus revenues of corporations in interstate trade.
While it's true that the source of corporate revenues is consumers, taxing corporate profits allows the government to reduce the amount of money flowing to what is perceived as the wealthy owners of corporate stock.
If I'm not mistaken, even repealing the 16th amendment would still allow for taxes on the surplus income of corporations.
While it's true that the source of corporate profits is consumption, corporate taxes allow the government to reduce some of the flow of money to what is perceived as the wealthy owners of corporate stock.
>>I think Java would be pretty good if it adopted public: and private: from C - also var from javascript, for declarations where you don't want to type out ArrayList myList = new ArrayList();. Just a few tweaks here and there would make Java so much more legible, and cut down on the typing a lot.
Check out Scala, a JVM language. Scala not only reduces declaration cruft, but it introduces a variables vs values (final variables) distinction that decreases the possibility of modifying what should be a one-time calculated value.
>That snippet from Stallman is disturbing. It's almost like he's completely forgotten why Free Software is actually appealing to people.
It's not disturbing when you consider the fact that RMS's philosophy is the basis of the progress that the free software community has been able to make so far, and that progress is why normal users are attracted to Linux (a system that works well).
A parallel to this is the freedoms and philosophy behind the US Constitution. Those freedoms and structures formed the basis of the progress in Silicon Valley and other places which allowed for the current state of art in computing.
But if a consumer were to say he wants the advanced computers that a free-enterprise system allowed to develop without the free-enterprise system, he would be committing the same fallacy as someone who wants Linux, GNOME, and the entire constellation of free software without the free software philosophy.
You can still watch the news on TV (or listen on the radio), so I think people know what state and city they are in.
Also, there are degrees of illiteracy. If you had to, I'm sure you could start writing your name (or ID number) in Arabic or Chinese even if you couldn't read a newspaper in those languages.
The biometric stuff is just a pure power grab. Do bureaucrats have international conventions where they discuss how to be more and more Evilll?
Governments are basically are in a race to be the most privacy-invading, rights-ignoring country across the world.
Meanwhile the US Census is sending out the American Community Survey, which wants to know: -if you run a business from your house -how much you earn from various activities -how you spend your money -number of toilets -what time you leave for work, how long it takes, and how many travel with you (wonderful to know for stalkers) -and other weird and invasive questions
>>- It's NOT funny when I'm on a slow connection and slashdot is stealing it, and I have no way to turn this shit off.
I hear you, but have you considered browsing with Javascript turned off?
Vast swaths of the web are browsable without Javascript, especially since the lack of Flash on iPhone forced many sites to have another look at their crummy "dynamic" navigation and use CSS instead.
Use, say, Chrome for no-Javascript, no-plugin browsing and keep IE or Firefox for viewing the occasional YouTube.
Ever read a blog post where the author takes you step-by-step through a serious of attempts to solve a problem, some of which are dead ends?
In end, you get a good understanding of how the solution really works, and reading about it is interesting.
By contrast, just presenting a fait accompli like they do in school leaves kids wondering why this matters and doesn't allow them to understand it as easily.
After years of free software advocates pointing out the dangers of.NET clone Mono and consequent belittling by Microsoft apologists, Miguel finally comes to his senses. (This follows up on GNOME removing spatial browsing as a default in Nautilus.)
The GIMP is brought up because it's the flagship application of the Linux/free software/open source crowd.
GTK+ is (basically) the GIMP Toolkit. GNOME is built on GTK+ and was at one time the only totally free desktop environment because KDE was built on Qt, which wasn't free-libre.
In fact, what would be really weird is if there were a Photoshop thread in which the GIMP wasn't mentioned.
An alternative question would be: why is Photoshop compulsively mentioned whenever there's a new GIMP release?
I agree this could have been posted a little earlier, but I disagree with those who say an Ubuntu beta isn't news for nerds.
It is.
Like it or not, Ubuntu is the top Linux distribution, including all of its variants (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc.).
Also, saying that anybody who's interested in Ubuntu would already know about the LTS beta is nonsensical. People have a variety of interests, but that doesn't mean that they're obsessively following Google Updates for all of them. The point of Slashdot is to compile (selected) tech news.
Slashdot Mirror
The problem with letting corporations have a vote is that people (and corporations) can create an unlimited number of corporations, meaning an unlimited number of votes.
While I can see employers keeping their half of the FICA taxes, it seems quite unlikely that they would try to keep the employee half, which employees can just verify from their old pay stubs.
I think the FairTax is levied on sales of imported goods as well. I think that's how sales taxes work currently, too.
Under the Fair Tax, everybody gets a monthly rebate check which brings the poor to a net zero tax. The destitute poor actually get a benefit.
People who consume a lot (boats, expensive cars, furs) pay more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Tax
Used goods are not taxed, so the poor can save money on their first car, and the middle class on their second car.
If I'm not mistaken, even repealing the 16th amendment would still allow Congress to tax the surplus revenues of corporations in interstate trade.
While it's true that the source of corporate revenues is consumers, taxing corporate profits allows the government to reduce the amount of money flowing to what is perceived as the wealthy owners of corporate stock.
If I'm not mistaken, even repealing the 16th amendment would still allow for taxes on the surplus income of corporations.
While it's true that the source of corporate profits is consumption, corporate taxes allow the government to reduce some of the flow of money to what is perceived as the wealthy owners of corporate stock.
>>I think Java would be pretty good if it adopted public: and private: from C - also var from javascript, for declarations where you don't want to type out ArrayList myList = new ArrayList();. Just a few tweaks here and there would make Java so much more legible, and cut down on the typing a lot.
Check out Scala, a JVM language. Scala not only reduces declaration cruft, but it introduces a variables vs values (final variables) distinction that decreases the possibility of modifying what should be a one-time calculated value.
val age:Int=22
var numPrimesFound:Int=0
While it's true that Java's library is highly hierarchical, you don't type out whole namespace paths all the time. You just import namespaces.
Java 5 also features static imports:
import static java.lang.Math.PI;
import static java.lang.Math.*;
double r = cos(PI * theta);
Free Java IDEs like Eclipse and Netbeans manage imports automatically. You don't have to type them out.
>That snippet from Stallman is disturbing. It's almost like he's completely forgotten why Free Software is actually appealing to people.
It's not disturbing when you consider the fact that RMS's philosophy is the basis of the progress that the free software community has been able to make so far, and that progress is why normal users are attracted to Linux (a system that works well).
A parallel to this is the freedoms and philosophy behind the US Constitution. Those freedoms and structures formed the basis of the progress in Silicon Valley and other places which allowed for the current state of art in computing.
But if a consumer were to say he wants the advanced computers that a free-enterprise system allowed to develop without the free-enterprise system, he would be committing the same fallacy as someone who wants Linux, GNOME, and the entire constellation of free software without the free software philosophy.
Bravo to RMS.
He has his rabid detractors, but, over time, he is proven right again and again.
GNOME and Ubuntu diving headlong into the Mono abyss is basically TuxRacer sliding with blinders on.
You can still watch the news on TV (or listen on the radio), so I think people know what state and city they are in.
Also, there are degrees of illiteracy. If you had to, I'm sure you could start writing your name (or ID number) in Arabic or Chinese even if you couldn't read a newspaper in those languages.
The biometric stuff is just a pure power grab. Do bureaucrats have international conventions where they discuss how to be more and more Evilll?
Made-up scenario?
The Census has already admitting to giving information on Japanese-Americans for the purpose of their internment at concentration camps during WWII.
After denying it for decades, they finally admitted giving names and addresses of Japanese-Americans to the military.
Generally, if the government tells you X, the truth is likely Not X.
Governments are basically are in a race to be the most privacy-invading, rights-ignoring country across the world.
Meanwhile the US Census is sending out the American Community Survey, which wants to know:
-if you run a business from your house
-how much you earn from various activities
-how you spend your money
-number of toilets
-what time you leave for work, how long it takes, and how many travel with you (wonderful to know for stalkers)
-and other weird and invasive questions
>>- It's NOT funny when I'm on a slow connection and slashdot is stealing it, and I have no way to turn this shit off.
I hear you, but have you considered browsing with Javascript turned off?
Vast swaths of the web are browsable without Javascript, especially since the lack of Flash on iPhone forced many sites to have another look at their crummy "dynamic" navigation and use CSS instead.
Use, say, Chrome for no-Javascript, no-plugin browsing and keep IE or Firefox for viewing the occasional YouTube.
Finally, YouTube for us Lynx users.
Are the ASCII images 7-bit clean?
Not all of us can afford 14.28% additional bits, you insensitive clods!
Sarko accomplishes what legions of web developers, deletionist Wikipedians, and curmudgeonly Slashdotters could not!
Seriously, though, this is from the same folks that brought you
Republic 1.0
Republic 2.0
Republic 3.0
Republic 4.0, and
Republic 5.0
And they say Microsoft has trouble getting it right the first time.
and thereby use more gas.
Is that also a good idea?
I'm moving to HURD.
(HURD of Ubuntu-Replacing Daemons)
Basically the same reason for moving the window control buttons to the left:
1. No reason at all
2. Because that's what Mark wants
3. A vague kind of Mac fanboism
1. We're cancelling/impinging open source efforts for nVidia. ...
2. Open source geeks aren't buying nVidia.
3.
4. Don't profit!
5. GOTO #1
This.
Ever read a blog post where the author takes you step-by-step through a serious of attempts to solve a problem, some of which are dead ends?
In end, you get a good understanding of how the solution really works, and reading about it is interesting.
By contrast, just presenting a fait accompli like they do in school leaves kids wondering why this matters and doesn't allow them to understand it as easily.
After years of free software advocates pointing out the dangers of .NET clone Mono and consequent belittling by Microsoft apologists, Miguel finally comes to his senses. (This follows up on GNOME removing spatial browsing as a default in Nautilus.)
Well, better late than never.
The GIMP is brought up because it's the flagship application of the Linux/free software/open source crowd.
GTK+ is (basically) the GIMP Toolkit. GNOME is built on GTK+ and was at one time the only totally free desktop environment because KDE was built on Qt, which wasn't free-libre.
In fact, what would be really weird is if there were a Photoshop thread in which the GIMP wasn't mentioned.
An alternative question would be: why is Photoshop compulsively mentioned whenever there's a new GIMP release?
KITT?
that Google doesn't want to do?
Next:
Google Lawyer ("I AM a lawyer!")
Google Web-medicine (get some of that Health Care bill gravy)
Google electric car
Google Skynet
I agree this could have been posted a little earlier, but I disagree with those who say an Ubuntu beta isn't news for nerds.
It is.
Like it or not, Ubuntu is the top Linux distribution, including all of its variants (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc.).
Also, saying that anybody who's interested in Ubuntu would already know about the LTS beta is nonsensical. People have a variety of interests, but that doesn't mean that they're obsessively following Google Updates for all of them. The point of Slashdot is to compile (selected) tech news.