I just did my taxes (yes, I did file for an extension in April), so I know how much I paid in US Federal and state income taxes; I will use myself as a test case of tax burdens. (All figures in US dollars.)
My salary (in the public record) is about $72K (yeah, lower than it should be)
My federal income tax was a little over $6K.
My state income tax was a bit over $2.5K.
My health insurance cost (since Canada has "free" health care) was about $5.5K.
My Social Security and Medicare tax was about $4.8K.
The local sales tax rate is a little over 6% (I think).
Six percent of $72000-$18000 is a bit over $3.2K.
So, income and SS tax accounts for about 18.5% of my salary. Health insurance takes about 7.5.% If I paid sales tax on all of my "untaxed money", this would amount to about 4.5% of my salary. All these things together add up to about 30% of my salary.
I would be interested in a few actual examples like mine from Canada (or India).
When flying somewhere (I think Frankfort to Chicago but it might have been another trip like Milan to Atlanta), the person next to me turned out to be a graduate of IIT (in India) and he was going to Detroit to spend 3 months learning how they did IT work so he could go back to India and teach employees there how this firm operated. He did not say how many jobs would be going to India but it appeared that he would be treated well (rental cat provided, nice apartment, etc. while in Detroit).
Anyway, his job was not to "ride a keyboard" but to study the business processes and find ways to accomplish the same work from India.
We need a mod of "Stupid". Do you know if MS has ever restated its earnings? If so, did such a story even make it to Slashdot? To the best of my knowledge, NO. MS has so much money that no one (even lawyers) would care about such a minor change in revenue. If MS had seriously lied about its revenue or profit, this might be a story. If they reported revenue one month too soon, NO ONE WOULD CARE. Get a life.
(You probably flunked my calculus class - oops, that was an Honors class and you were not there. Too bad.)
(Compiling a new kernel (2.6.7 rel. 10) and grumpy!)
Using the "public airways" (spectrum) carries responsibilities. If cell phone companies do not want to report outages, do not let them use any of the reserved cell phone frequencies.
I am not sure I understand your point, which sounds like "If I have to choose between functionality and security, I will choose functionality". Is this a correct description of your point of view?
For the sake of discussion, I will assume the answer to my question is "yes." (Of course, it might be "no.") Choosing "functionality" over "security" is a long standing problem for Microsoft and for users of its products. Until this changes, MS products should not be considered to be even slightly secure. Look at the recent security warnings/info: Atak IE IE
MS patchs
The end of the last link above is funny.
"Thomas Kristensen, CTO at security firm Secunia, told El Reg: "There are a variety of vulnerabilities with Internet Explorer that have been around for a while and are been actively exploited. Several are unpatched. We recommend our customers to use another browser for general web surfing and to limit their use of IE to trusted websites where its functionality is required, such as banking websites." ®"
Only use IE at web sites like banking sites, where confidential information and your financial resources are at risk. (Now which web sites did the Russians target? Oh yeah, banking sites.) ?????
Thank you for your answer. My question may have been poorly written. It was my impression that Microsoft had a plan for "trusted computing" which would give them access to your computer to allow them to automatically update/patch your computer. (Am I wrong here?) I was thinking about "trusted source" in this sense of "trusted computing". Is there any connection?
I am just curious. Who decides if a web/FTP/whatever site is "a trusted source". Do MS sites automatically qualify as "trusted sites"? What is the "default" (e.g. trust MS)?
"Effectively it's not the browser that's broken"
How well does IE use CSS2? MS refuses to correctly and completely implement many standards. I assume many/. people had to "customize" web pages so they would look good in IE. How can you say IE is not broken?
I think we are still waiting.
(Obviously, IE lets you view web pages. I assume "actually works" means something like "lets you view web pages without giving away all of your security".)
"WE" (=the slashdot readers) are the moderators. "We" mod things insightful when they are actually funny and troll when they are actually serious. "We" should accept our responsibility and shrug. Or start a flamewar. Or get a degree in English. Or laugh at SCO. (recursive joke needed here):-)
Once Gentoo is compiled, it just runs; it does not compile and compile forever. When you want to update, for example, KDE, just (i) type "emerge sync" (as root) (ii) type
"emerge -up KDE" to see which packages it needs to update and which new packages (if any) it needs to add and (iii) type "emerge -u KDE" if you want portage to compile and install it for you. Portage works in the background while your computer does its job.
Have you tried Gentoo? If you go through stages 1-3 (or 4), it will take some time (a few days at most) to compile and optimize; it does not sound like you have that kind of free computer time. You might want to use a Gentoo LiveCD.
From here:
"Portage will keep your Gentoo Linux system as "up-to-date" as you desire. And because of this, experienced Gentoo users don't pay too much attention to "new versions" of Gentoo Linux -- after all, the latest and greatest version of Gentoo Linux is always available by typing an emerge sync command. There's no need to wait several months for a "new version" of Gentoo Linux to be released because Gentoo Linux is continually updated and refined and these improvements are immediately made available to you.
"Of course, we do roll up official CD releases of Gentoo Linux so that new Gentoo Linux installs are as up-to-date as possible from the start. Here's an overview of what is included in the recent 2004.1 release of Gentoo Linux:
"Support for x86, AMD64, PowerPC, UltraSparc, Alpha and MIPS processors
LiveCD-based installation for x86, AMD64, PowerPC, UltraSparc and Alpha
Latest stable KDE and GNOME
Various optimized Linux kernels
Very modern GNU development environment
Excellent filesystem support: ReiserFS, XFS, ext3, EVMS, LVM
Excellent hardware support: NVIDIA, Creative Labs Live! and Audigy
Modular OpenGL and compiler sub-system (supports multiple co-existing versions)
Clean, dependency-based system initialization scripts
New "hardened" Gentoo security initiative
almost 7000 packages of the latest and greatest software
Enhanced Portage capabilities
See
also.
Didn't Digital (DEC) make a "contribution" to the PII? I do not recall seeing in the article how smart the Intel engineers were (to steal from DEC). Did I just miss this part of the article?
OK, I should have said "There is no "out of the box" Windows product (64 bit non-beta OS) for AMD64 out there."
Of course, you forgot NT on Alphas.
Your test sounds interesting. We could compare OSs on IA64 and on Alphas. Our university has a cluster of 32 IA64s (which was probably a waste of money).
Don't you wish DEC was still alive putting out new versions of the Alpha? More registers. Really good compilers. The best chips (at the time) in the world.
(Just curious; did anyone use this or
this?
(I do not use Pascal (anymore) or C++.) )
"You must understand that the Gentoo people, at least on/., do not care if the app runs correctly, they just want it to run fast."
I am just a dumb Math Professor. I do care if latex or fortran or xfig or xpdf or sendmail or apache or gv or dvips or gimp or ssh or... do not run correctly.
"That's why they use every gcc flag they can."
This is news to me. I am not doing heavy numerical analysis or scientific computing at the moment but I can assure you that correct answers are important and fast but incorrect answers are worthless. Who exactly do you think are the AMD64 users?
"Unfortunately, we had difficulties running our new hardware platform on Gentoo and Debian"
This is a dumb comment. I would have trouble running Gentoo Linux if my computer did not have a power cord; would this be the fault of Gentoo? The Gentoo site has lots of helpful information and it is fairly easy to get answers to questions if you are having trouble installing Gentoo. I do not think the "testers" wanted to include Gentoo and this was an excuse. I am very disappointed.
I run my AMD64 under Gentoo and it works great! Granted, this is not "out of the box" (does Gentoo have a "box"?) but Gentoo is easy to use and update.
Since my computers have been 64 bit (Alpha, AMD64) for many years, I am aware of the problems with applications which are not 64 bit clean. I do not consider this an OS issue (except when the problem is with the kernel) but an application issue. As an OS for AMD64, Gentoo Linux works very well.
I ran Windows NT on my 164 Alpha for a few (several?) years until I switched to Linux. My Alpha (which sits next to my AMD64) can still be dual booted to NT or Linux, although I have not used NT for a long time. (It is too much trouble to determine the exact years.) Anyway, NT on Alpha worked better than any other MS OS that I know of.
Slashdot Mirror
I just did my taxes (yes, I did file for an extension in April), so I know how much I paid in US Federal and state income taxes; I will use myself as a test case of tax burdens. (All figures in US dollars.)
My salary (in the public record) is about $72K (yeah, lower than it should be)
My federal income tax was a little over $6K.
My state income tax was a bit over $2.5K.
My health insurance cost (since Canada has "free" health care) was about $5.5K.
My Social Security and Medicare tax was about $4.8K.
The local sales tax rate is a little over 6% (I think). Six percent of $72000-$18000 is a bit over $3.2K.
So, income and SS tax accounts for about 18.5% of my salary. Health insurance takes about 7.5.% If I paid sales tax on all of my "untaxed money", this would amount to about 4.5% of my salary. All these things together add up to about 30% of my salary.
I would be interested in a few actual examples like mine from Canada (or India).
When flying somewhere (I think Frankfort to Chicago but it might have been another trip like Milan to Atlanta), the person next to me turned out to be a graduate of IIT (in India) and he was going to Detroit to spend 3 months learning how they did IT work so he could go back to India and teach employees there how this firm operated. He did not say how many jobs would be going to India but it appeared that he would be treated well (rental cat provided, nice apartment, etc. while in Detroit).
Anyway, his job was not to "ride a keyboard" but to study the business processes and find ways to accomplish the same work from India.
We need a mod of "Stupid". Do you know if MS has ever restated its earnings? If so, did such a story even make it to Slashdot? To the best of my knowledge, NO. MS has so much money that no one (even lawyers) would care about such a minor change in revenue. If MS had seriously lied about its revenue or profit, this might be a story. If they reported revenue one month too soon, NO ONE WOULD CARE. Get a life. (You probably flunked my calculus class - oops, that was an Honors class and you were not there. Too bad.)
(Compiling a new kernel (2.6.7 rel. 10) and grumpy!)
Using the "public airways" (spectrum) carries responsibilities. If cell phone companies do not want to report outages, do not let them use any of the reserved cell phone frequencies.
I am not sure I understand your point, which sounds like "If I have to choose between functionality and security, I will choose functionality". Is this a correct description of your point of view?
For the sake of discussion, I will assume the answer to my question is "yes." (Of course, it might be "no.") Choosing "functionality" over "security" is a long standing problem for Microsoft and for users of its products. Until this changes, MS products should not be considered to be even slightly secure. Look at the recent security warnings/info:
Atak
IE
IE
MS patchs
The end of the last link above is funny.
"Thomas Kristensen, CTO at security firm Secunia, told El Reg: "There are a variety of vulnerabilities with Internet Explorer that have been around for a while and are been actively exploited. Several are unpatched. We recommend our customers to use another browser for general web surfing and to limit their use of IE to trusted websites where its functionality is required, such as banking websites." ®"
Only use IE at web sites like banking sites, where confidential information and your financial resources are at risk. (Now which web sites did the Russians target? Oh yeah, banking sites.) ?????
Thank you for your answer. My question may have been poorly written. It was my impression that Microsoft had a plan for "trusted computing" which would give them access to your computer to allow them to automatically update/patch your computer. (Am I wrong here?) I was thinking about "trusted source" in this sense of "trusted computing". Is there any connection?
Just respond to the police in Elbonian.
I am just curious. Who decides if a web/FTP/whatever site is "a trusted source". Do MS sites automatically qualify as "trusted sites"? What is the "default" (e.g. trust MS)?
"Effectively it's not the browser that's broken" /. people had to "customize" web pages so they would look good in IE. How can you say IE is not broken?
How well does IE use CSS2? MS refuses to correctly and completely implement many standards. I assume many
I think we are still waiting.
(Obviously, IE lets you view web pages. I assume "actually works" means something like "lets you view web pages without giving away all of your security".)
"WE" (=the slashdot readers) are the moderators. "We" mod things insightful when they are actually funny and troll when they are actually serious. "We" should accept our responsibility and shrug. Or start a flamewar. Or get a degree in English. Or laugh at SCO. (recursive joke needed here) :-)
Once Gentoo is compiled, it just runs; it does not compile and compile forever. When you want to update, for example, KDE, just (i) type "emerge sync" (as root) (ii) type "emerge -up KDE" to see which packages it needs to update and which new packages (if any) it needs to add and (iii) type "emerge -u KDE" if you want portage to compile and install it for you. Portage works in the background while your computer does its job.
Look through the step-by-step instructions in the 12 steps here. It really is easy.
Have you tried Gentoo? If you go through stages 1-3 (or 4), it will take some time (a few days at most) to compile and optimize; it does not sound like you have that kind of free computer time. You might want to use a Gentoo LiveCD. From here:
"Portage will keep your Gentoo Linux system as "up-to-date" as you desire. And because of this, experienced Gentoo users don't pay too much attention to "new versions" of Gentoo Linux -- after all, the latest and greatest version of Gentoo Linux is always available by typing an emerge sync command. There's no need to wait several months for a "new version" of Gentoo Linux to be released because Gentoo Linux is continually updated and refined and these improvements are immediately made available to you.
"Of course, we do roll up official CD releases of Gentoo Linux so that new Gentoo Linux installs are as up-to-date as possible from the start. Here's an overview of what is included in the recent 2004.1 release of Gentoo Linux:
"Support for x86, AMD64, PowerPC, UltraSparc, Alpha and MIPS processors
LiveCD-based installation for x86, AMD64, PowerPC, UltraSparc and Alpha
Latest stable KDE and GNOME
Various optimized Linux kernels
Very modern GNU development environment
Excellent filesystem support: ReiserFS, XFS, ext3, EVMS, LVM
Excellent hardware support: NVIDIA, Creative Labs Live! and Audigy
Modular OpenGL and compiler sub-system (supports multiple co-existing versions)
Clean, dependency-based system initialization scripts
New "hardened" Gentoo security initiative
almost 7000 packages of the latest and greatest software
Enhanced Portage capabilities
See also.
What about Georgia?
Didn't Digital (DEC) make a "contribution" to the PII? I do not recall seeing in the article how smart the Intel engineers were (to steal from DEC). Did I just miss this part of the article?
OK, I should have said "There is no "out of the box" Windows product (64 bit non-beta OS) for AMD64 out there." Of course, you forgot NT on Alphas.
Your test sounds interesting. We could compare OSs on IA64 and on Alphas. Our university has a cluster of 32 IA64s (which was probably a waste of money).
Is there a chance you are overgeneralizing (is this a word?)?
Don't you wish DEC was still alive putting out new versions of the Alpha? More registers. Really good compilers. The best chips (at the time) in the world.
(Just curious; did anyone use this or this? (I do not use Pascal (anymore) or C++.) )
Using you reasoning, they should not have included Windows at all. There is no "out of the box" Windows product (64 bit non-beta OS) out there.
"You must understand that the Gentoo people, at least on /., do not care if the app runs correctly, they just want it to run fast." ... do not run correctly.
I am just a dumb Math Professor. I do care if latex or fortran or xfig or xpdf or sendmail or apache or gv or dvips or gimp or ssh or
"That's why they use every gcc flag they can."
This is news to me. I am not doing heavy numerical analysis or scientific computing at the moment but I can assure you that correct answers are important and fast but incorrect answers are worthless. Who exactly do you think are the AMD64 users?
"Unfortunately, we had difficulties running our new hardware platform on Gentoo and Debian"
This is a dumb comment. I would have trouble running Gentoo Linux if my computer did not have a power cord; would this be the fault of Gentoo? The Gentoo site has lots of helpful information and it is fairly easy to get answers to questions if you are having trouble installing Gentoo. I do not think the "testers" wanted to include Gentoo and this was an excuse. I am very disappointed.
I run my AMD64 under Gentoo and it works great! Granted, this is not "out of the box" (does Gentoo have a "box"?) but Gentoo is easy to use and update.
Since my computers have been 64 bit (Alpha, AMD64) for many years, I am aware of the problems with applications which are not 64 bit clean. I do not consider this an OS issue (except when the problem is with the kernel) but an application issue. As an OS for AMD64, Gentoo Linux works very well.
What (worthwhile) code could he take from MS? Is there some secret GOOD MS code out there?
I ran Windows NT on my 164 Alpha for a few (several?) years until I switched to Linux. My Alpha (which sits next to my AMD64) can still be dual booted to NT or Linux, although I have not used NT for a long time. (It is too much trouble to determine the exact years.) Anyway, NT on Alpha worked better than any other MS OS that I know of.