I was in the Canadian Armed Forces (Army) as a Sargeant and there's a few things that, in my practical experience, we could have used. The same would hold true for US Army uniforms:
1. mimetic shading - not invisibility - would have been nice to have the uniform lighten or darken based upon surrounding light levels - not invisibility - but a tan uniform when it's night isn't as useful as a darker brown, and a green dazzle cam isn't useful when you're on the sand (bright light).
2. the wound detection would have been useful. A few times I got moderately injured but was so pumped on endorphins and adrenaline that I didn't notice until I reported back to the CP and someone noticed my combats were dark with blood. So something like that would really have helped. To you this sounds silly, but when you're in action you sometimes forget minor details like wounds when your life is up for grabs.
3. better resistance to grime and dirt - so it's easier to brush it off when the officers get on your case about how you looked after wading through bogs and swamps or rolling down hills.
Well, Seattle and also Tacoma are bastions of Open Source - and across one of the world's longest floating bridges - is where the dark lord and his minions hatch their plots of world domination by Microsoft.
I just read a story that it's not just Seattle that's being sued on this - and this is a law we've had for some time, so it's the whiners across the Lake that are attacking it.
When he moves to Seattle, he can vote on our taxes. Until then, we decide how we tax those in our Emerald City - and the State would be well advised to stay away - for if we pull the plug on the budget, nothing will get done - and since we subsidize the county and the state very highly, we actually can fill those services locally, whilst the rest of the state learns who really pays the taxes. It's us.
1. contract programmers working at home (which is something we encourage here with tax breaks for companies)
You're missing your own point here... If the contract programmer is working at home, then the company isn't using city resources to support that person. The work-at-home, though, IS paying taxes to support police/fire/medic/whatnot services by paying their own personal property taxes. Granted, it may not be the same city/state/country, but the services are being paid for.
It still costs the City of Seattle money. We have to provide for the landline there and its integrity, the ability for the home worker to visit the HQ (roads, other usages), the phone line to the HQ - and in Seattle we OWN the land line space which we RENT to telecoms, unlike other cities.
You may not like us, but we are our own city. If companies don't like it - they're free to move elsewhere. But a LOT of companies seem to like it, so we're not about to change to please the tax leeches///////avoiders nearby.
Right now more than 1/3 of our taxes collected in the city are sent to the county and state and never spent here. We have the highest rate of that in the whole state among cities.
Software creation requires mainly man-hours, and since employees already pay state income taxes I'd think the state already recieves their share and doesn't have the right to double-tax for intellectual work.
Since we don't have an income tax in this state and cities and counties cannot impose one, this is a bunch of tripe.
The only income tax we pay in this state is to the Feds.
They get a free ride. We only make sure they don't get an unfair ride here in Seattle. What the dark lord wishes to do in Redmond or Kirkland or Issiquah is none of our concern, as all the lands under his thrall are across the waters of Lake Washington.
Software companies DO pay for the services you just mentioned, in the form of property taxes.
Not really. Property taxes don't exist for:
1. contract programmers working at home (which is something we encourage here with tax breaks for companies);
2. foreign contract firms that outsource the coding elsewhere (but this taxes them);
3. the buildings - software development uses less square footage per product developed and thus pays fewer taxes, while incurring more city services for fire, police, libraries (especially this) and everything else that the human capital consumes.
Basically, the State of Washington just wants a free ride. They force us to build stadiums here, even when we vote them down, and then impose a tax paid mostly by our city for stadiums mostly used by the dark minions and lords of Mordor//////Microsoft across the water in Redmond and Kirkland and Issiquah.
We will not be cowed by the influences of the dark minions. This tax actually helps Open Source, which mostly thrives in Seattle whilst it is crushed in Redmond. For you can't tax software that has no cost.
The reality is that there are many more firms developing software in Seattle than those two, of course. Actually, I believe even Microsoft has some facilities here, although they're based in Redmond, across the Lake, where the demons lie.
Obviously, Washington lawmakers have their heads up their asses. Most governments try to encourage these kinds of businesses, rather than tax them. [more blather] All Washington will accomplish with this is to hasten Microsoft's migration to India.
The dark land of Redmond is home to Microsoft. There, across the many miles of lake, the dark lord Bill G reigns over all his minions.
And here we have had our State, which is suing us over this, force us to build two stadiums we the city voted down, and force us to pay taxes for them. One for the dark prince Paul Allen who lives partway across the lake in his tower on Mercer Island.
Cry no tears for the dark minions of these two masters - they reside not here in our fair emerald city of Seattle.
If I own ABC Software, and I'm located in Seattle, I can contract programmers in India, and contract a manufacturer in Taiwain, and sell the software all over the world. But the profits are going to be recorded in my ledgers in Seattle, and are therefore subject to any local, state, and national taxes. Am I missing something?
No, sounds pretty much what one would expect.
Of course, this means that using contract programmers won't be as cheap as the foreign-terrorist-sponsoring companies wish it was.
Basically though, this is another case of the State trying to tell our city what to do. We voted against the stadiums, and the state made a state-wide referendum, built them against our wishes, and then taxed mostly Seattle for it.
Note we have no income tax in this state - anywhere. None. We have only sales tax and property tax - so it's not like we have choices.
Sigh. Look, RealAudio is north of us. Microsoft, the dark land of shadows, is across Lake Washington, in the land where hope dies and the SUVs roam the earth.
Here in Seattle we have many firms: Adobe (in Fremont, where I live, Center of the Universe) Immunex (Queen Anne neighborhood) Utilikilts (in Fremont, where I live) and many many more
Those that belong to the dark lord are across the water, where the demons dwell. We here in the Emerald City - we who have had stadiums built against the express vote of the city, forced by the state - we who have forced through a monorail vote though all tried to stop it - we are the ones talking about a tax.
It's our city. Not Washington State's city. Not Bill Gates city (he lives in Redmond). Not Paul Allen (who is building a park in south Lake Union in Seattle that noone realizes is underway) - he lives on Mercer Island, halfway across Lake Washington, like the floating city in The Hobbit.
No, this is Seattle. Home to Ichiro. Home to our own software - and we tend to use Linux and Unix and BSD here.
I did - in the 80s I went to various literary conventions, back when I lived in Canada - and I pointed out how a tax that does not go to the artists themselves, including a pool for new artists, is inherently unfair.
There are no bugs with XP. Or with Win 2000. Or with WinCE.
Really.
Ignore the crashes - it's just your imagination.
Ask yourself - would you rather know about a bug? Or have someone knowledgeable deny it exists? Even when you have a CD with the bug fix installed on another computer.
The fact is - Sun's right. And Microsoft knows it.
However, since justice belongs to the highest bidder in this crony capitalist country - I predict Microsoft will successfully defend themselves against these warranted charges.
Naturally, this will employ tons of lawyers - and since they're tech lawyers, this is probably Good For The West Coast.
- [sorry about the prior post - hit the Enter key by mistake] -
Slashdot Mirror
I was in the Canadian Armed Forces (Army) as a Sargeant and there's a few things that, in my practical experience, we could have used. The same would hold true for US Army uniforms:
1. mimetic shading - not invisibility - would have been nice to have the uniform lighten or darken based upon surrounding light levels - not invisibility - but a tan uniform when it's night isn't as useful as a darker brown, and a green dazzle cam isn't useful when you're on the sand (bright light).
2. the wound detection would have been useful. A few times I got moderately injured but was so pumped on endorphins and adrenaline that I didn't notice until I reported back to the CP and someone noticed my combats were dark with blood. So something like that would really have helped. To you this sounds silly, but when you're in action you sometimes forget minor details like wounds when your life is up for grabs.
3. better resistance to grime and dirt - so it's easier to brush it off when the officers get on your case about how you looked after wading through bogs and swamps or rolling down hills.
Just a few thoughts.
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Well, Seattle and also Tacoma are bastions of Open Source - and across one of the world's longest floating bridges - is where the dark lord and his minions hatch their plots of world domination by Microsoft.
I just read a story that it's not just Seattle that's being sued on this - and this is a law we've had for some time, so it's the whiners across the Lake that are attacking it.
-
Our citizens LIKE this program.
It's the dark lord in Redmond who dislikes it.
When he moves to Seattle, he can vote on our taxes. Until then, we decide how we tax those in our Emerald City - and the State would be well advised to stay away - for if we pull the plug on the budget, nothing will get done - and since we subsidize the county and the state very highly, we actually can fill those services locally, whilst the rest of the state learns who really pays the taxes. It's us.
-
1. contract programmers working at home (which is something we encourage here with tax breaks for companies)
You're missing your own point here... If the contract programmer is working at home, then the company isn't using city resources to support that person. The work-at-home, though, IS paying taxes to support police/fire/medic/whatnot services by paying their own personal property taxes. Granted, it may not be the same city/state/country, but the services are being paid for.
It still costs the City of Seattle money. We have to provide for the landline there and its integrity, the ability for the home worker to visit the HQ (roads, other usages), the phone line to the HQ - and in Seattle we OWN the land line space which we RENT to telecoms, unlike other cities.
You may not like us, but we are our own city. If companies don't like it - they're free to move elsewhere. But a LOT of companies seem to like it, so we're not about to change to please the tax leeches///////avoiders nearby.
Right now more than 1/3 of our taxes collected in the city are sent to the county and state and never spent here. We have the highest rate of that in the whole state among cities.
You reap what you sow.
No income tax --* yet *-- just a Business and Occupations tax on gross receipts.
Well, we've never had one since we became Washington State, or even before in the Territory.
So, it's a moot point.
And the B&O tax is not a tax on income. That's like saying a property tax on vehicles is the same thing as a sales tax on purchasing a car.
They make look similar. But they're not.
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Software creation requires mainly man-hours, and since employees already pay state income taxes I'd think the state already recieves their share and doesn't have the right to double-tax for intellectual work.
Since we don't have an income tax in this state and cities and counties cannot impose one, this is a bunch of tripe.
The only income tax we pay in this state is to the Feds.
They get a free ride. We only make sure they don't get an unfair ride here in Seattle. What the dark lord wishes to do in Redmond or Kirkland or Issiquah is none of our concern, as all the lands under his thrall are across the waters of Lake Washington.
-
Software companies DO pay for the services you just mentioned, in the form of property taxes.
Not really. Property taxes don't exist for:
1. contract programmers working at home (which is something we encourage here with tax breaks for companies);
2. foreign contract firms that outsource the coding elsewhere (but this taxes them);
3. the buildings - software development uses less square footage per product developed and thus pays fewer taxes, while incurring more city services for fire, police, libraries (especially this) and everything else that the human capital consumes.
Basically, the State of Washington just wants a free ride. They force us to build stadiums here, even when we vote them down, and then impose a tax paid mostly by our city for stadiums mostly used by the dark minions and lords of Mordor//////Microsoft across the water in Redmond and Kirkland and Issiquah.
We will not be cowed by the influences of the dark minions. This tax actually helps Open Source, which mostly thrives in Seattle whilst it is crushed in Redmond. For you can't tax software that has no cost.
-
I stand corrected.
The reality is that there are many more firms developing software in Seattle than those two, of course. Actually, I believe even Microsoft has some facilities here, although they're based in Redmond, across the Lake, where the demons lie.
Obviously, Washington lawmakers have their heads up their asses. Most governments try to encourage these kinds of businesses, rather than tax them. [more blather] All Washington will accomplish with this is to hasten Microsoft's migration to India.
This is Seattle. We have Adobe. We make Utilikilts.
The dark land of Redmond is home to Microsoft. There, across the many miles of lake, the dark lord Bill G reigns over all his minions.
And here we have had our State, which is suing us over this, force us to build two stadiums we the city voted down, and force us to pay taxes for them. One for the dark prince Paul Allen who lives partway across the lake in his tower on Mercer Island.
Cry no tears for the dark minions of these two masters - they reside not here in our fair emerald city of Seattle.
It only taxes software developed for sale.
If you work for a non-profit or open-source programming - there is no taxable event.
End result - more open-source software in Seattle.
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If I own ABC Software, and I'm located in Seattle, I can contract programmers in India, and contract a manufacturer in Taiwain, and sell the software all over the world. But the profits are going to be recorded in my ledgers in Seattle, and are therefore subject to any local, state, and national taxes. Am I missing something?
No, sounds pretty much what one would expect.
Of course, this means that using contract programmers won't be as cheap as the foreign-terrorist-sponsoring companies wish it was.
Basically though, this is another case of the State trying to tell our city what to do. We voted against the stadiums, and the state made a state-wide referendum, built them against our wishes, and then taxed mostly Seattle for it.
Note we have no income tax in this state - anywhere. None. We have only sales tax and property tax - so it's not like we have choices.
You're either with Seattle - or you're out of it.
-
Nope.
Sigh. Look, RealAudio is north of us. Microsoft, the dark land of shadows, is across Lake Washington, in the land where hope dies and the SUVs roam the earth.
Here in Seattle we have many firms:
Adobe (in Fremont, where I live, Center of the Universe)
Immunex (Queen Anne neighborhood)
Utilikilts (in Fremont, where I live)
and many many more
Those that belong to the dark lord are across the water, where the demons dwell. We here in the Emerald City - we who have had stadiums built against the express vote of the city, forced by the state - we who have forced through a monorail vote though all tried to stop it - we are the ones talking about a tax.
It's our city. Not Washington State's city. Not Bill Gates city (he lives in Redmond). Not Paul Allen (who is building a park in south Lake Union in Seattle that noone realizes is underway) - he lives on Mercer Island, halfway across Lake Washington, like the floating city in The Hobbit.
No, this is Seattle. Home to Ichiro. Home to our own software - and we tend to use Linux and Unix and BSD here.
-
god i hate when ppl try and come to conclusions abotu society from a survey or using statistics.
This is Jon we're talking about here. He does that all the time. Kind of like this:
1. startup.Jon
2. query.Jon
3. Jon.input = statistical.study
4. Jon.output = crazy.post.notconnected.reality
5. flame.Jon.whois = slashdot.everyone
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Modern cars are run by microprocessors.
How many of us can reprogram them? Not many.
How about your toaster - in the old days you could take them apart and fix them. Now they have fuzzy software.
Can you fix your Furby?
How about your Aibo?
Even our furnace controls are automated - but most of us can't fix those.
But the most important question is - why would we want to?
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That was question 2.
Is this some new software that runs on Linux or BSD?
Since it's not - I have no idea how one might use this program.
Guess I'm not tech savvy. So, that makes me, someone who works in IT, not Tech Savvy.
[insert comment about Jon and squirrels here]
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Really should post.
I did - in the 80s I went to various literary conventions, back when I lived in Canada - and I pointed out how a tax that does not go to the artists themselves, including a pool for new artists, is inherently unfair.
-
There are no bugs with XP.
Or with Win 2000.
Or with WinCE.
Really.
Ignore the crashes - it's just your imagination.
Ask yourself - would you rather know about a bug? Or have someone knowledgeable deny it exists? Even when you have a CD with the bug fix installed on another computer.
-
As much as I hate to side w/ MS, I'm sorry but this lawsuit is retarded...
Ah, but you fail to realize that the law is not about smart things. It's only about the law.
So neither Microsoft's IE or AOL's Netscape should either.
The fact is - Sun's right. And Microsoft knows it.
However, since justice belongs to the highest bidder in this crony capitalist country - I predict Microsoft will successfully defend themselves against these warranted charges.
Naturally, this will employ tons of lawyers - and since they're tech lawyers, this is probably Good For The West Coast.
-
[sorry about the prior post - hit the Enter key by mistake]
-
I mean, I thought that thing died last century - nobody here in Seattle uses that OS - it's so OS/2 that it makes crufty look cool ...
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The thing is, it's actually even more separate.
It's political speech - in fact, most states restrictions on Unsolicited Mail and Unsolicited Doorbellers specifically exclude political uses.
So long as he's a registered candidate, he is most likely exempt from any and all such regulations.
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In fact, of the people in the ISD (aka IT) department where I work, almost half are Canadians (some are dual citizens like me).
Have another Molson's on me. I'll have a lite cider, in a litre bottle.
Will in Seattle
Last I heard, the USA will go IPv6 when we convert to metric.
...
So figure about 2132 at the rate we're going
-:(
It says Lindows to sue Microsoft.
This is the USA. Everyone can sue everyone. Doesn't mean they'll win. MSFT uses lawyers like you or I use pebbles on birds.