The IRS loves the new tax software because it makes the horrendous Alternative Minimum Tax calculations easy and automatic, and thus lowering political pressure on politicians to get rid of it. (I would have had to pay if I and my wife had filed "married but seper
Hence TurboTax will probably be granted the extension.
You still have to pay on time with an extension request (or face penalties). Hence you have a Catch-22 -- you have to do your tax form to know how much to pay, which means you're actually done.
The easiest thing is to just over-estimate how much you have to pay, just to be safe. I haven't run any numbers on that (and lost interest on it, to you) vs. the cost of a penalty.
But making things as easy as possible to keep the money flowing through is one hell of an engineering problem. Hence things like major post offices strongarmed to stay open until midnight, and TurboTax probably will be granted their request to consider as "on time" eFiles submitted through their system up through today. Yes, the IRS could be an ass about it, but then they've pissed off hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of registered voters.
Microsoft has been through this wringer -- if only one in 10,000 Windows users had a big enough of a problem every day to make them want to try to get MS help, that's 10,000 calls a day Microsoft has to field. And all that turns into rage against their corporation. Managing this is quite the engineering problem.
Linux itself is cute, for the techie. See what happens if a hundred million people try to install it. "Oh, just go do this, this, and this, and for that driver, that." 99% of people's eyes will glaze over and they'll just play dumb (not even playing, actually) and wait for it to be fixed.
Engineers who release real, mass products into the real world encounter this and learn from it the hard way. "It's in the manual" may be a technically correct response to a problem, but it's incorrect from the point of view to selling a system to a customer and his 10,000 employees.
> It was basically a manual DNS attack. With so many waiting until the last minute, what do people expect?
[b]Poor Quality Software Engineer 1:[/b] Ahhh, finished with the server setup, finally!
[b]Poor Quality Software Engineer 2:[/b] We can only handle 1000 concurrent users. What if more than that try to use it at once?
[b]Poor Quality Software Engineer 1:[/b] That'll never happen. And if it does, they can just wait until the next day and try again. There's only one time a year where this might even happen, and we shouldn't bother building to handle that scenario since it's so rare.
[b]Poor Quality Software Engineer 2:[/b] Sounds like a plan. Where are my stock options?
My local township has the unbelievable balls to charge me $50 as an "administration fee" to collect my house taxes. It's on the tax bill itself, and has nothing to do with method of payment.
Here's your check for $5300. What? I must pay an additional $50 to cover the administration costs of you collecting this? WTF!
> Was simple gaming better, or are you a story in games fan?"
When the generation after mine got old enough to reminisce about how great Transformers were, or Micronauts, or god knows what, all stuff I was too old to be "into" when it was hot and original, I realized that nothing ever changed.
Nostalgia: The veneration of that which formed us.
There are kids who think of Halo as the hottest game evah! I could never get it, and I love many 3D games, especially online FPS games.
Sooner or later another will come along, and those kids will look at the Halo lovers and think, sheah right pops, do you start that thing with a crank?
> Chances are, if you put an elephant in an systemically humiliating situation > [wikipedia.org], it'd go crazy and fuck some people up, too.
That link makes no suggestion of the elephant going crazy because it was humiliated.
That's pure speculation on your part. I don't even know if they can experience that emotion (though I think dogs will do that. They will turn their face away as if embarassed if you talk to them in a disappointed tone, e.g. "Why did you do that?")
I don't even know if there are any crashes -- like the music industry, there are just long stretches where few if any real "hits" are produced, then, for better or for worse, along comes someone with a couple of catchy tunes with a "hook" in 'em.
Your inability to comprehend the need to share data around combined with a lack of understanding of the social engineering aspects of this with regards to masses of technically illiterate people indicates...you're fired!
What part of "This is your IT department, you have a virus. Hurry! Open this zip file and run what's in it!" don't you get?
> 'At 6:14 a.m. on Wednesday, April 4, relatively few people were tuned into the > "Imus in the Morning Show"... Ryan Chiachiere was. A 26-year-old researcher in > Washington, D.C., for liberal watchdog organization Media Matters for America, > he was assigned to monitor Mr. Imus's program. Mr. Chiachiere clipped the video, > alerted his bosses and started working on a blog post for the organization's Web > site.' The article breaks down how that viral video clip and word of mouth outrage > reached the ears of the presidents of CBS and MSNBC, ultimately leading to Imus' dismissal."
Exactly. How is an email with a picture instead of actual text (so a text scanner can't detect it) claiming it's from your IT department and they need you to run this patch to get rid of a virus, instructing you to open the attached zip file (with password, provided in the picture) which is password protected (so a zip scanner can't get in it) a Windows problem?!?!?
> Of course it seems implausable that FTL could be achieved with a steam-powered starship
True uberdork pedants will realize that the locomotive time machine at the end of the Back to the Future series was not powered by a Mr. Fusion, but rather by the steam engine itself. Doc Brown had figured out how to reduce the energy needed significantly, to say nothing of using steam to power the lift rockets.
What $150? I currently owe Verizon over $900 because I dumped their plan with 4 family phones.
I haven't paid 'em for a year, and can't afford to, and presume they are actively destroying my credit rating. (Lack of money to pay their monthly fee was why I dropped them in the first place.)
They can get in line behind 4 credit cards, the hospital bills, and the local electric company (Detroit Edison) actively reporting your electric bill as late if you're overdue 1 month instead of 3. Brought to you by George Bush's America.
Slashdot Mirror
> The Social Web asks: 'who will be the first to offer Second Life hosting
> or use the server code for their own infernal purposes?
Fixed it for you!
Would the strike tag really kill things around here?
The IRS loves the new tax software because it makes the horrendous Alternative Minimum Tax calculations easy and automatic, and thus lowering political pressure on politicians to get rid of it. (I would have had to pay if I and my wife had filed "married but seper
Hence TurboTax will probably be granted the extension.
Remember: They just want your money.
You're fired.
I don't want anyone with this attitude working at any of my corporations. Thxbie.
Remember: They just want your money.
You still have to pay on time with an extension request (or face penalties). Hence you have a Catch-22 -- you have to do your tax form to know how much to pay, which means you're actually done.
The easiest thing is to just over-estimate how much you have to pay, just to be safe. I haven't run any numbers on that (and lost interest on it, to you) vs. the cost of a penalty.
But making things as easy as possible to keep the money flowing through is one hell of an engineering problem. Hence things like major post offices strongarmed to stay open until midnight, and TurboTax probably will be granted their request to consider as "on time" eFiles submitted through their system up through today. Yes, the IRS could be an ass about it, but then they've pissed off hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of registered voters.
Microsoft has been through this wringer -- if only one in 10,000 Windows users had a big enough of a problem every day to make them want to try to get MS help, that's 10,000 calls a day Microsoft has to field. And all that turns into rage against their corporation. Managing this is quite the engineering problem.
Linux itself is cute, for the techie. See what happens if a hundred million people try to install it. "Oh, just go do this, this, and this, and for that driver, that." 99% of people's eyes will glaze over and they'll just play dumb (not even playing, actually) and wait for it to be fixed.
Engineers who release real, mass products into the real world encounter this and learn from it the hard way. "It's in the manual" may be a technically correct response to a problem, but it's incorrect from the point of view to selling a system to a customer and his 10,000 employees.
> It was basically a manual DNS attack. With so many waiting until the last minute, what do people expect?
[b]Poor Quality Software Engineer 1:[/b] Ahhh, finished with the server setup, finally!
[b]Poor Quality Software Engineer 2:[/b] We can only handle 1000 concurrent users. What if more than that try to use it at once?
[b]Poor Quality Software Engineer 1:[/b] That'll never happen. And if it does, they can just wait until the next day and try again. There's only one time a year where this might even happen, and we shouldn't bother building to handle that scenario since it's so rare.
[b]Poor Quality Software Engineer 2:[/b] Sounds like a plan. Where are my stock options?
My local township has the unbelievable balls to charge me $50 as an "administration fee" to collect my house taxes. It's on the tax bill itself, and has nothing to do with method of payment.
Here's your check for $5300. What? I must pay an additional $50 to cover the administration costs of you collecting this? WTF!
> This year's event will take place at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California
And in a related story, this year's show tunes musical convention will be...in New York, New York.
> Was simple gaming better, or are you a story in games fan?"
When the generation after mine got old enough to reminisce about how great Transformers were, or Micronauts, or god knows what, all stuff I was too old to be "into" when it was hot and original, I realized that nothing ever changed.
Nostalgia: The veneration of that which formed us.
There are kids who think of Halo as the hottest game evah! I could never get it, and I love many 3D games, especially online FPS games.
Sooner or later another will come along, and those kids will look at the Halo lovers and think, sheah right pops, do you start that thing with a crank?
How...Occidentalist :rollseyes
Ironically, another term used in video games (from ultimately the real world) is useful here: fog of war
We don't at this time know anything about who did this, much less why.
The 30 second analysis with graphics and 3D models detailing every step will come later.
> Chances are, if you put an elephant in an systemically humiliating situation
> [wikipedia.org], it'd go crazy and fuck some people up, too.
That link makes no suggestion of the elephant going crazy because it was humiliated.
That's pure speculation on your part. I don't even know if they can experience that emotion (though I think dogs will do that. They will turn their face away as if embarassed if you talk to them in a disappointed tone, e.g. "Why did you do that?")
Ummm.
Yeah.
He wanted to see if unarmed people really could take out a guy with a gun as easily as they do in the movies.
Guess not, ass.
I don't even know if there are any crashes -- like the music industry, there are just long stretches where few if any real "hits" are produced, then, for better or for worse, along comes someone with a couple of catchy tunes with a "hook" in 'em.
> You just compared an entire gaming platform, to a single purpose toy.
Yes, that was his point. Hence phrases like "one trick pony".
A powerful trick that sells well, but, like Guitar Hero, a single-trick novelty.
Your inability to comprehend the need to share data around combined with a lack of understanding of the social engineering aspects of this with regards to masses of technically illiterate people indicates...you're fired!
What part of "This is your IT department, you have a virus. Hurry! Open this zip file and run what's in it!" don't you get?
Not technically true.
I am also welcome to attempt to convert people back to the proper way of thinking. Again, what dyam fool in
Wait a minnit
The American Psychological Association says so?
WTF!
The American Psychological Association you are holding up as an argument from authority?!?!?!
Heeheheee! Sweet
> Fuk Li, manager
Hehehe
> 'At 6:14 a.m. on Wednesday, April 4, relatively few people were tuned into the ... Ryan Chiachiere was. A 26-year-old researcher in
> "Imus in the Morning Show"
> Washington, D.C., for liberal watchdog organization Media Matters for America,
> he was assigned to monitor Mr. Imus's program. Mr. Chiachiere clipped the video,
> alerted his bosses and started working on a blog post for the organization's Web
> site.' The article breaks down how that viral video clip and word of mouth outrage
> reached the ears of the presidents of CBS and MSNBC, ultimately leading to Imus' dismissal."
Ummmm, hooray?
Britney and Paris hooking up in a video? Sweet! Send it to me, plzthxbie
Exactly. How is an email with a picture instead of actual text (so a text scanner can't detect it) claiming it's from your IT department and they need you to run this patch to get rid of a virus, instructing you to open the attached zip file (with password, provided in the picture) which is password protected (so a zip scanner can't get in it) a Windows problem?!?!?
> Unlike plastic tubing, the real thing is rifled and will
> produce a stream that conducts electricity.
Are you calling R. Lee Eremy a liar?!?!?
"This is my rifle.
This is my gun.
This is for fighting.
This is for fun."
"A motion-sensor/motion-activated handheld wii controller. How...quaint. (gives disgusted smirk)"
> Of course it seems implausable that FTL could be achieved with a steam-powered starship
True uberdork pedants will realize that the locomotive time machine at the end of the Back to the Future series was not powered by a Mr. Fusion, but rather by the steam engine itself. Doc Brown had figured out how to reduce the energy needed significantly, to say nothing of using steam to power the lift rockets.
Forget all that crap -- how about quadra-triti-kaline? (Presumably a wheat bud with three heads of four sub-heads each.)
Or some o' them sexbots will be fine, too.
What $150? I currently owe Verizon over $900 because I dumped their plan with 4 family phones.
I haven't paid 'em for a year, and can't afford to, and presume they are actively destroying my credit rating. (Lack of money to pay their monthly fee was why I dropped them in the first place.)
They can get in line behind 4 credit cards, the hospital bills, and the local electric company (Detroit Edison) actively reporting your electric bill as late if you're overdue 1 month instead of 3. Brought to you by George Bush's America.
Kinder, gentler, my ass.