Not so quickly there. They are operating under geostationary rules which means home customers may have directed antennaes. Can't really move these things around. Its also difficult to have redundancy unless you've got a second "waiting in the wings". Not sure why the back-up couldn't be a pretty ordinary airplane, If the first comes down - just bolt the transponder to the CEO's jet and take off.
Since they advertise geostationarity - I think they must maintain altitude all night. In fact - the cycle life of the battery system is likely to be the functional limit on time aloft.
If you're looking to shoot many subjects effeceintly, let me tell you how to connect a barcode reader to the Canon EOS. It allows you to identify the Subject, Order Prints, and Keep Groups together. Its wireless, portable, and weighs 2oz.
If you're shooting weddings - you won't really need it.
Could the Shareholders donate their Shares to a charity fund and get the tax rightoff? That might be an easier way to liquidate a software company - then thecharity can Open the Source.
If their Primary Mandate was to liberate the common man by releasing Open Source software into the wild, than GNUMP as a donanation would meet their objectives.
I am researching the idea of Source Code as a tax deduction.
As a candidate - Would you be interested in a tax deduction for GNUMP? - I Believe you can write off up to 30% of your annual income through donations.
If you received a maximum tax deduction (Say 30%) every year from GNUMP - how many years would it take to recoup the effort in GNUMP?
Would you be willing to change the license of GNUMP to add a requirement that non-profits who use GNUMP must acknowledge their use through a receipt for a donated "Work of Art" if it were still GPL compatible?
If Open Soars is a non-profit organization, it can accept tax deductable donations of money and other items of value - such as the source code to OpenVPN. This would have the effect of Uncle Sam sponsering Open Source.
IS Open Soars Non-Profit? and could they accept Source Code as "Works of Art" Donations?
A Friend of mine has a project (OpenVPN which reaches 99% activity on SourceForge when it is released) If he donated the Source Code to Open Sours, would you write a receipt for the replacement value of his "work of art?"
If so, he could see some monetary benefit without anybody writing a single check!
Modders might do Open Source a favor and read the link.
P.S. If Uncle Sam were willing to forgive taxes in exchange for public works - could that not provide another method for sharing the cost of such?
I believe the US tax code allows for the donation of code as art for a tax deduction. Open Source would do well to drive a test case through and demonstrate the limits of code donations.
Would you be more inclined to work on Open Source if it meant a big tax break - possibly even for years to come?
If you donate your source code to charity - you could receive a tax deduction equal to the "replacement value".
Say it took 1000 hours to Program that J2EE Server. Figure $120 an hour for 3rd party development - that's 120,000 in donations. probably wipe out half your tax liability. If you can get a charity to use the code - you could I suppose (IANAL) revise it annually for renewable deductions.
Why don't you Donate your source code to charity for a tax benefit of the Replacement Value. Software donation isn't specifically listed so far as I can see, but "Art" or works of art must include painting, books, even records and cd's so why not GNUMP?
The reason we have "Donation" intermediaries is to take advantage of the tax code.
If you get a tax break of 50% for example, you can give $200 and get back $100, so Uncle Sam is dollar matching your contribution to Open Source. Whatever else it might lack - getting Uncle Sam to help is a pretty good idea.
Another Tool is to "Donate" the code itself to charity organizations. In that case, no money changes hands - but the programmer get a hefty tax refund - Once again Uncle Sam helping Open Source - but this time no seed capital!
Donate to charity = Tax Deduction = $.: Donate Code to Open Source = $
Under current tax law - I believe it is quite possible to Donate software to public NPO's and receive a significant tax refund.
That is what the market for Open Source should look like in the year 2002.
We need a non-profit to validate code donations as "Works of Art" or "Collections - ie Vinyl Records."
That's it really. If you want to leverage it further - modify the GPL to "require" qualified NPO's to validate donations as condition for use. This means every time an NPO uses free software they should write a receipt to the author. This means yearly recurring tax deductions - so your 1000 hour Open Source project could be paying your taxes for years to come!
I agree that I would be better represented by Sanquine commentary than Hooting - But in this democracy - I believe the reply - see why we don't invite them only admits that you didn't - people have a right to protest AFTER they've been dissed without being criticised in a chicken and egg paradoxical fashion. That line about "See why we don't invite" really reminds people (Me at least) of their older Siblings bullshit when they were growing up - I don't it would spin well.
But I mostly concur.
AIK
P.S. I wrote to the commission along the lines that I thought the right to operate a sequence of mathematical expressions of one's choosing without regulation as invisioned by Babbage was more or less protected under speach in the first Amendment.
And that moreover technical advances like the phonograph and robot have rendered many trades irrelevent - but we're far better off here than where we would be if we chose protectionism over progress.
Unless you are specifically not invited or represented. In THAT case - I think the meeting might be justifiably heckled - but that point should be clearly made. Invite us on equal terms or we will reduce your discussion to chaos. That is a fair statement in a democracy.
I see the Watershed occuring when open source development is paid for in the kind of money you can use to buy food.
What is happening now is more on the lines of the starving artist - RLS being the starvingest example.
I imagine the Open Source could benefit the public and the public could benefit Open Source. I believe the shortest distance to that point is to leverage existing donation tax law into a state where Open Source contributions result in significant tax deductions - which can then be used to get a real check from the public payable to Open Source developers. (Limit your annual tax liability)
Having glanced at some IRS documents - I believe it could be done right now.
The watershed moment for linux will occur when development becomes self-sustaining without compromising the integrity of Open Source.
In the US, this could readily be accomplished by setting up recipient non-profit organization for the purpose of handling OS code donations by individual programmers.
Take SourceForge, add a non-profit organization using SourceForge for infrastructure. Every Open Source contribution/bug fix made to SourceForge is valuated by experts (modded) and a receipt generated listing the "replacement value of donated works of art".
Now every hour a programmer works on Linux is tax deductable - which is pretty good pay for a gainfully employed programmer. You can't work full time - but you could work as long as one year at Open Source - funded on donations alone (Last half of one year and first half of the next - then go back to a real job for the rest of the year tax free. The taxes you save pay for the first half of the year.
This creates an endless fund for Open Source without asking for donations (Except donations of the code itself).
Yes of course, The easiest way is for programmers to "Donate" their "work of art" to nonprofit organizations like the Free Software Foundation - which should issue a tax deductable receipt for the "replacement cost" of the "artwork."
This deduction would provide monetary support to programmers who work part-time on improving Linux etc . . .
As a non-coder - all you have to do to support GNU is pay some taxes.
Lasers might be bad, but not because they're difficult to run, but because the last thing we want to do with space junk is blow bigger pieces into smaller ones.
You really have a mass moving problem - not a entropy encreasing one.
As such - you need to minimize the mass required to move all this stuff into a destructive orbit.
The most effecient might be to divide the thing into two parts, and force them apart at an angle which drives one half directly into the atmosphere while pushing the other half backward and up in it's orbit creating a terminal elliptical orbit.
But that has some practicality issues. You might get there by releasing swarms of magnetic space mines which could seek out metal fragments, attach themselves, and then explode at the opportune moment (Ie. at the darkest part of their radio reception cycle) Driving the mass into the atmoshere. If they were small, Large Object would attract several, and might be able to push - say a booster stage - into the earth.
All in all a magnetic mine - trackable from earth and remotely enabled released into a slightly off axis orbit might be effective.
Actually, If you fire the Sweeper into slightly off-equatorial orbit, It can Sweep a different swath each orbit. Given that there are relatively few useful orbits (GeoStationary , near earth, etc) A few sweepers in the right altitude may be rather effective. As you say - it should go-with-the-flow almost to avoid high speed impacts.
One problem - it will be difficult to avoid catching the stuff we want to leave (GPS, ISS, Hubble, Iridium etc ).
For that you need a current Space map, and a net that can orient itself around targets.
I would suggest a fractal net. When the net is about to scoop up a "keeper" it splits itself in two parts and seperates with enough force to thread the object. The piece take new routs, and split again if necessary. When they have split their last time - they burn themselves up via reentry.
If You're going to Donate your work anyway as in Open Source - the easiest way to pay for it is to Donate it as artwork to charity. This has the effect of causing the payment to be as shared as the code.
Rus, Why Doesn't the Public Software Fund simply accept Donation of Software as "Art" from Programmers - who then receive a Tax Deduction for the appraised amount. This way the People would pay for what they get - OSI compliance Software.
Assuming you have had a job for some of this year - You probably have all the funding you need waiting for you at the IRS.
If you create a "work of art", have it appraised by an expert, print it on paper, and donate it to a non-profit organization. That org can issue you a tax deduction.
Tax Deductions are worth n+n^2 face value where n is your income tax rate. Say you were at the 50% rate - the Tax Deduction you receive for your artistic contribution to AmigaOS would be 75% of the Appraised Value. I doubt many programmers get 75% of the selling price of their software - so it's really a generous deal.
See IRS Document 561 for official details on donating "Works of Art".
Its true the document doesn't break down "Works of Art" into Books, vs Photographs, vs Original Van Gough vs, Compiled works of highly mathmatical precision, but Art is a big tent, and Software is as like art as anything else.
IANAL/CPA But what an easy place to find the money you need to complete that OS! And We the People will both benefit and pay.
Slashdot Mirror
Unless you donate each article to charity. Then the artwork is tax-deductable and you could in fact get paid for it.
All you need is a decent day job to provide a utilty for deductions, and you're off and running.
work for uncle sam all day - get it back by writing an article a week for LWN.
AIK
Not so quickly there. They are operating under geostationary rules which means home customers may have directed antennaes. Can't really move these things around. Its also difficult to have redundancy unless you've got a second "waiting in the wings". Not sure why the back-up couldn't be a pretty ordinary airplane, If the first comes down - just bolt the transponder to the CEO's jet and take off.
AIK
Since they advertise geostationarity - I think they must maintain altitude all night. In fact - the cycle life of the battery system is likely to be the functional limit on time aloft.
If you're looking to shoot many subjects effeceintly, let me tell you how to connect a barcode reader to the Canon EOS. It allows you to identify the Subject, Order Prints, and Keep Groups together. Its wireless, portable, and weighs 2oz.
If you're shooting weddings - you won't really need it.
AIK
Could the Shareholders donate their Shares to a charity fund and get the tax rightoff? That might be an easier way to liquidate a software company - then thecharity can Open the Source.
If their Primary Mandate was to liberate the common man by releasing Open Source software into the wild, than GNUMP as a donanation would meet their objectives.
I am researching the idea of Source Code as a tax deduction.
As a candidate - Would you be interested in a tax deduction for GNUMP? - I Believe you can write off up to 30% of your annual income through donations.
If you received a maximum tax deduction (Say 30%) every year from GNUMP - how many years would it take to recoup the effort in GNUMP?
Would you be willing to change the license of GNUMP to add a requirement that non-profits who use GNUMP must acknowledge their use through a receipt for a donated "Work of Art" if it were still GPL compatible?
AIK
If Open Soars is a non-profit organization, it can accept tax deductable donations of money and other items of value - such as the source code to OpenVPN.
This would have the effect of Uncle Sam sponsering Open Source.
IS Open Soars Non-Profit? and could they accept Source Code as "Works of Art" Donations?
AIK
Do you accept Donations of Code?
A Friend of mine has a project (OpenVPN which reaches 99% activity on SourceForge when it is released) If he donated the Source Code to Open Sours, would you write a receipt for the replacement value of his "work of art?"
If so, he could see some monetary benefit without anybody writing a single check!
Can you do it?
AIK
Interesting Protocol - Highly recommended reading.
Modders might do Open Source a favor and read the link.
P.S. If Uncle Sam were willing to forgive taxes in exchange for public works - could that not provide another method for sharing the cost of such?
I believe the US tax code allows for the donation of code as art for a tax deduction. Open Source would do well to drive a test case through and demonstrate the limits of code donations.
AIK
Would you be more inclined to work on Open Source if it meant a big tax break - possibly even for years to come?
If you donate your source code to charity - you could receive a tax deduction equal to the "replacement value".
Say it took 1000 hours to Program that J2EE Server. Figure $120 an hour for 3rd party development - that's 120,000 in donations. probably wipe out half your tax liability. If you can get a charity to use the code - you could I suppose (IANAL) revise it annually for renewable deductions.
AIK
Why don't you Donate your source code to charity for a tax benefit of the Replacement Value. Software donation isn't specifically listed so far as I can see, but "Art" or works of art must include painting, books, even records and cd's so why not GNUMP?
AIK
The reason we have "Donation" intermediaries is to take advantage of the tax code.
If you get a tax break of 50% for example, you can give $200 and get back $100, so Uncle Sam is dollar matching your contribution to Open Source. Whatever else it might lack - getting Uncle Sam to help is a pretty good idea.
Another Tool is to "Donate" the code itself to charity organizations. In that case, no money changes hands - but the programmer get a hefty tax refund - Once again Uncle Sam helping Open Source - but this time no seed capital!
AIK
Donate to charity = Tax Deduction = $ .:
Donate Code to Open Source = $
Under current tax law - I believe it is quite possible to Donate software to public NPO's and receive a significant tax refund.
That is what the market for Open Source should look like in the year 2002.
We need a non-profit to validate code donations as "Works of Art" or "Collections - ie Vinyl Records."
That's it really. If you want to leverage it further - modify the GPL to "require" qualified NPO's to validate donations as condition for use. This means every time an NPO uses free software they should write a receipt to the author. This means yearly recurring tax deductions - so your 1000 hour Open Source project could be paying your taxes for years to come!
AIK
And here I thought Crop Circles were used to calibrate sattelite based telescopes (not just the Hubble).
AIK
I agree that I would be better represented by Sanquine commentary than Hooting - But in this democracy - I believe the reply - see why we don't invite them only admits that you didn't - people have a right to protest AFTER they've been dissed without being criticised in a chicken and egg paradoxical fashion. That line about "See why we don't invite" really reminds people (Me at least) of their older Siblings bullshit when they were growing up - I don't it would spin well.
But I mostly concur.
AIK
P.S. I wrote to the commission along the lines that I thought the right to operate a sequence of mathematical expressions of one's choosing without regulation as invisioned by Babbage was more or less protected under speach in the first Amendment.
And that moreover technical advances like the phonograph and robot have rendered many trades irrelevent - but we're far better off here than where we would be if we chose protectionism over progress.
Unless you are specifically not invited or represented. In THAT case - I think the meeting might be justifiably heckled - but that point should be clearly made. Invite us on equal terms or we will reduce your discussion to chaos. That is a fair statement in a democracy.
AIK
I was too brief.
I see the Watershed occuring when open source development is paid for in the kind of money you can use to buy food.
What is happening now is more on the lines of the starving artist - RLS being the starvingest example.
I imagine the Open Source could benefit the public and the public could benefit Open Source. I believe the shortest distance to that point is to leverage existing donation tax law into a state where Open Source contributions result in significant tax deductions - which can then be used to get a real check from the public payable to Open Source developers. (Limit your annual tax liability)
Having glanced at some IRS documents - I believe it could be done right now.
And I think maybe the FSF is the org to do it.
AIK
The watershed moment for linux will occur when development becomes self-sustaining without compromising the integrity of Open Source.
In the US, this could readily be accomplished by setting up recipient non-profit organization for the purpose of handling OS code donations by individual programmers.
Take SourceForge, add a non-profit organization using SourceForge for infrastructure. Every Open Source contribution/bug fix made to SourceForge is valuated by experts (modded) and a receipt generated listing the "replacement value of donated works of art".
Now every hour a programmer works on Linux is tax deductable - which is pretty good pay for a gainfully employed programmer. You can't work full time - but you could work as long as one year at Open Source - funded on donations alone (Last half of one year and first half of the next - then go back to a real job for the rest of the year tax free. The taxes you save pay for the first half of the year.
This creates an endless fund for Open Source without asking for donations (Except donations of the code itself).
AIK
Yes of course,
The easiest way is for programmers to "Donate" their "work of art" to nonprofit organizations like the Free Software Foundation - which should issue a tax deductable receipt for the "replacement cost" of the "artwork."
This deduction would provide monetary support to programmers who work part-time on improving Linux etc . . .
As a non-coder - all you have to do to support GNU is pay some taxes.
AIK
Do you think MS get a tax right-off for donating XP to Peru?
If so - why couldn't Lixus authors donate software and get a write-off?
I think a lot of Programmers would contribute to Linux if it meant they got a bulk of their taxes back.
AIK
Wrong I think on several Points.
Lasers might be bad, but not because they're difficult to run, but because the last thing we want to do with space junk is blow bigger pieces into smaller ones.
You really have a mass moving problem - not a entropy encreasing one.
As such - you need to minimize the mass required to move all this stuff into a destructive orbit.
The most effecient might be to divide the thing into two parts, and force them apart at an angle which drives one half directly into the atmosphere while pushing the other half backward and up in it's orbit creating a terminal elliptical orbit.
But that has some practicality issues. You might get there by releasing swarms of magnetic space mines which could seek out metal fragments, attach themselves, and then explode at the opportune moment (Ie. at the darkest part of their radio reception cycle) Driving the mass into the atmoshere. If they were small, Large Object would attract several, and might be able to push - say a booster stage - into the earth.
All in all a magnetic mine - trackable from earth and remotely enabled released into a slightly off axis orbit might be effective.
AIK
Actually, If you fire the Sweeper into slightly off-equatorial orbit, It can Sweep a different swath each orbit. Given that there are relatively few useful orbits (GeoStationary , near earth, etc) A few sweepers in the right altitude may be rather effective. As you say - it should go-with-the-flow almost to avoid high speed impacts.
One problem - it will be difficult to avoid catching the stuff we want to leave (GPS, ISS, Hubble, Iridium etc ).
For that you need a current Space map, and a net that can orient itself around targets.
I would suggest a fractal net. When the net is about to scoop up a "keeper" it splits itself in two parts and seperates with enough force to thread the object. The piece take new routs, and split again if necessary. When they have split their last time - they burn themselves up via reentry.
AIK
If You're going to Donate your work anyway as in Open Source - the easiest way to pay for it is to Donate it as artwork to charity. This has the effect of causing the payment to be as shared as the code.
See IRS rules for Donating Artwork for details.
AIK
Rus,
Why Doesn't the Public Software Fund simply accept Donation of Software as "Art" from Programmers - who then receive a Tax Deduction for the appraised amount. This way the People would pay for what they get - OSI compliance Software.
What could be easier or more fair?
AIL
If you create a "work of art", have it appraised by an expert, print it on paper, and donate it to a non-profit organization. That org can issue you a tax deduction.
Tax Deductions are worth n+n^2 face value where n is your income tax rate. Say you were at the 50% rate - the Tax Deduction you receive for your artistic contribution to AmigaOS would be 75% of the Appraised Value. I doubt many programmers get 75% of the selling price of their software - so it's really a generous deal.
See IRS Document 561 for official details on donating "Works of Art".
Its true the document doesn't break down "Works of Art" into Books, vs Photographs, vs Original Van Gough vs, Compiled works of highly mathmatical precision, but Art is a big tent, and Software is as like art as anything else.
IANAL/CPA But what an easy place to find the money you need to complete that OS! And We the People will both benefit and pay.
AIK