Yes, there are zip codes with multiple tax codes in Iowa. I had a lengthy conversation with the Iowa Department of Revenue about this bullshit. They said that sales tax rates are granular down to the city block level. Ideally, I would join (and pay) a GIS service that'll track this for me, but the state government doesn't publicly provide data this precise.
When you have a business owner calling you, eager to enforce your convoluted sales tax, and you have to tell him that the state cannot provide the necessary information to enforce it, you have a problem.
You need to buy a phone from Virgin. Virgin uses Sprint's CDMA network, which (at least in the US) does not take advantage of SIM cards. Virgin's LG Optimus V is a very nice smartphone, though -- Android 2.2, fast, stock, etc.
For one, we have zero real competition between cell phone companies in terms of service. Agreements are created to be 100% anti-consumer and since all cell phone companies in the US have similar agreements, we are stuck with it.
I used to think the same thing. Then I discovered Virgin Mobile and the joys of prepaid service.
With a heavy heart I have to say that Ekiga is a piece of junk. I say this without any exaggeration.
For a while I've been trying to avoid Skype and get my family to use Ekiga. (My family already runs Linux.)
I've been trying to get Ekiga to work in various environments for at least three years. I've tried on two Linux end-points, two Windows end-points, and mixed. It works maybe 10% of the time -- and even then, not for long. Other times, the two participants cannot see each other online -- or can, yet cannot send messages to each other. When one side calls the other, the call looks like it's going but nothing happens on the receiver's end. Or, it immediately resets on the sender's end.
The biggest public argument against Ekiga -- lack of interoperability -- was never an issue for me! My family was ready and eager to use the latest (2.x, later 3.x) Ekiga. Yet my diehard open-source ways greatly failed this time.
Yes, both sides are behind NAT. That's the way of life. Skype works on today's Internet; Ekiga doesn't. End of story.
Write a program that uses web services (SOAP? XML-RPC?) to pull weather data / school cancellations from some source (local news station, local radio station, school's news). Create a Windows scheduled task to run this program in the morning and turn off the security (via PowerShell or registry) if the weather conditions are right
Please don't include cents for huge dollar amounts in an effort to increase the impact of your statements. It's difficult to read, not correct from a scientific notation perspective, and can be downright misleading (when you post "$5,000,000,000.000").
Which is more readable, "$80 billion" or "$80,000,000,000.00"? Answer: the one that keeps me from counting the zeros and stopping at the decimal point.
This is the irony that permeates the GPL vs. BSD camp. Both can make a good argument why their license is freeer than the other.
BSD gives companies the freedom to keep their changes private. GPL takes away the freedom from companies to keep their changes private in order to give consumers the freedom to tinker with those changes.
If only there was a Linux distribution whose target audience is hospitals, government, education, etc., and whose goals include API/ABI stability and long-term support. Perhaps we can call it "Enterprise Linux." I'll email Red Hat.
If all you do when you boot is launch Photoshop and work there all they, you're a power user in many respects but not of the desktop environment. Maybe that's all you need, but it's not all everybody needs.
Like the grandparent, I am not a power user of the desktop environment, and I don't even know what that means. Can you provide some use cases that Gnome doesn't cover?
I'm saying it's long time past making the shift to the proper way of measuring things. We can start by reprogramming the consumer to ask the right questions. The only relevant question is how much did it cost to make.
That's my point -- the "proper way of measuring things" has little to do with how much it cost to make.
I consider myself very close to a perfect consumer (rational, well informed, with a long-term view), yet I don't care how much my smartphone cost to make. I only care about whether the $200 I spend is worth the benefit I get out of having the phone. In my opinion, THAT's the proper way of measuring things. My smartphone may have cost only $50 to make, but I happen to think it's a bargain at $200, because I know I'll get much more than $200 of utility and enjoyment out of it. If I turn up my nose because the profit margin is higher than is "proper," I am hurting only myself since I am denying myself the >$200 of benefit from owning the phone.
When there's large participation in the market, prices will naturally approach the "cost to make" as each item becomes commoditized—but until then, your choice is to pay what the market wants for it, or to go without. I happen to think this is a perfect system.
For what it's worth, governments sometimes think the same way you do, and try to do the "proper" thing by instituting price controls. Those always fail, and the market always finds a way around them. Just look at the price controls on rent in NYC.
I don't care if the thing can fly me to the mountains on weekends. I only care how many man-hours it takes to make one, from the mine to the shelf.
This is a frequent yet fundamental misunderstanding of how pricing works. A price is set by what the producer thinks you'll pay -- not as a fixed amount/percentage above the production cost. There are many products in the marketplace with a very high profit margin (Apple products for example), and likewise some loss-leaders. The sooner you give up on the notion of matching price with "man-hours it takes to make one," the happier you'll be.
Replying to myself. A point I forgot to make: I set up this laptop to dual-boot with Windows 7. In contrast with Linux, in Windows 7 I had to merely install the wireless driver (no patching this time!) from the manufacturer, then run Windows Update -- it found and installed all the other necessary drivers. Now my hardware is flawless on Windows.
You must understand I am not placing blame on Linux here; there's a reason I am sticking with Linux as my primary OS. It's certainly the fault of manufacturers and OEMs who treat Linux as a third-class citizen (Mac's lodged in the middle) -- but it's pretty funny to read that the author "misses the challenge."
I know this is counterintuitive, but there are days I really miss the challenge (and the ensuing celebration) of old-school Linux. Back in the day, getting Linux installed gave many users reason to shout their own variation of “Hoorah” to the clouds.
The challenge is there, if you venture out of in-kernel drivers and supported install scenarios. Yesterday I spent three hours trying to get Linux set up on my new HP Pavilion dm1z -- and I consider myself a competent Linux user.
It took me a little while to set up LVM with the root filesystem managed by LVM. Documentation for configuring GRUB for LVM isn't great, and in some places on the web is outright wrong. Fine, got that. Next, the wireless card is unsupported. To get it to work, you must get the driver from the manufacturer (who fortunately advertises Linux support), then apply patches to it from other sources to get the driver to compile with my kernel version. None of this is documented in one place -- different forums have various snippets that inch me forward. Believe me, I shouted "Hoorah" once I finally spilled enough sweat to get it to work. (After I got this to work, I wrote my own step-by-step instructions to save others the pain.)
Once I got past the wireless issues, I started X and determined that the Synaptics touchpad is misconfigured -- the hardware is touch-sensitive on the physical buttons, so pressing a touchpad button also moves the mouse. The issue appears to be fixed, but it hasn't made it into the version of xf86-input-synaptics that Gentoo has. I had to clone the git repo of that driver, build it myself, and manually set up the rule that masks that area of the touchpad. And even now, it still doesn't work correctly. Now I don't move the mouse when I click, but I also cannot click and drag -- once I click, the cursor is fixed. Now this Linux user is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Challenges still abound, even on the most modern Linux kernel and distributions... just dare to venture out of the entrenched and supported hardware.
Personally I wish MSFT would sell Starter retail for say $35, I'd be buying copies of it like it were going out of style! It would be perfect for older/slower hardware, for SOHOs and other places where you just want the OS to get out of the way so you can run your programs.
Your wish is almost true -- Microsoft allows registered refurbishers to load Windows XP Home and Pro onto used PCs for about that price. For more info, search "Microsoft Registered Refurbisher."
Thanks for the well thought out response. You're right that not paying for stuff certainly doesn't mean that one is a pirate. It just came across like bragging that there's a Torrent for everything, whether free or not.
stopping the practice of usery which is destroying us all
You're right, let's just do away with the concept of interest. I laugh every time I see this. Why don't you become a lender and see if you can compete with lower rates. Do you have experience lending money to the average Joe Schmoe? Do you know how much research and analysis goes into balancing risk with profit?
On a related note, high interest rates are not "destroying" me or anyone else who knows a thing or two about basic finance. Stop owing others money; problem solved.
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Yes, there are zip codes with multiple tax codes in Iowa. I had a lengthy conversation with the Iowa Department of Revenue about this bullshit. They said that sales tax rates are granular down to the city block level. Ideally, I would join (and pay) a GIS service that'll track this for me, but the state government doesn't publicly provide data this precise.
When you have a business owner calling you, eager to enforce your convoluted sales tax, and you have to tell him that the state cannot provide the necessary information to enforce it, you have a problem.
You need to buy a phone from Virgin. Virgin uses Sprint's CDMA network, which (at least in the US) does not take advantage of SIM cards. Virgin's LG Optimus V is a very nice smartphone, though -- Android 2.2, fast, stock, etc.
For one, we have zero real competition between cell phone companies in terms of service. Agreements are created to be 100% anti-consumer and since all cell phone companies in the US have similar agreements, we are stuck with it.
I used to think the same thing. Then I discovered Virgin Mobile and the joys of prepaid service.
They're just doing their jobs.
I thought the Nuremberg Trials showed that this cannot be used as a justification.
No.
On a computer with latest Windows Updates? I'd pay to see it.
AV is a resource-intensive crutch for those who don't know how to correctly manage their systems.
I am too dense to see the wit in your original post, I apologize. :)
*whoosh*
With a heavy heart I have to say that Ekiga is a piece of junk. I say this without any exaggeration.
For a while I've been trying to avoid Skype and get my family to use Ekiga. (My family already runs Linux.)
I've been trying to get Ekiga to work in various environments for at least three years. I've tried on two Linux end-points, two Windows end-points, and mixed. It works maybe 10% of the time -- and even then, not for long. Other times, the two participants cannot see each other online -- or can, yet cannot send messages to each other. When one side calls the other, the call looks like it's going but nothing happens on the receiver's end. Or, it immediately resets on the sender's end.
The biggest public argument against Ekiga -- lack of interoperability -- was never an issue for me! My family was ready and eager to use the latest (2.x, later 3.x) Ekiga. Yet my diehard open-source ways greatly failed this time.
Yes, both sides are behind NAT. That's the way of life. Skype works on today's Internet; Ekiga doesn't. End of story.
Write a program that uses web services (SOAP? XML-RPC?) to pull weather data / school cancellations from some source (local news station, local radio station, school's news). Create a Windows scheduled task to run this program in the morning and turn off the security (via PowerShell or registry) if the weather conditions are right
replacing human employees with machines.
You make this sound like it's a bad thing.
Please don't include cents for huge dollar amounts in an effort to increase the impact of your statements. It's difficult to read, not correct from a scientific notation perspective, and can be downright misleading (when you post "$5,000,000,000.000").
Which is more readable, "$80 billion" or "$80,000,000,000.00"? Answer: the one that keeps me from counting the zeros and stopping at the decimal point.
criminal as opposed to civil.
This is the irony that permeates the GPL vs. BSD camp. Both can make a good argument why their license is freeer than the other.
BSD gives companies the freedom to keep their changes private.
GPL takes away the freedom from companies to keep their changes private in order to give consumers the freedom to tinker with those changes.
If only there was a Linux distribution whose target audience is hospitals, government, education, etc., and whose goals include API/ABI stability and long-term support. Perhaps we can call it "Enterprise Linux." I'll email Red Hat.
If all you do when you boot is launch Photoshop and work there all they, you're a power user in many respects but not of the desktop environment. Maybe that's all you need, but it's not all everybody needs.
Like the grandparent, I am not a power user of the desktop environment, and I don't even know what that means. Can you provide some use cases that Gnome doesn't cover?
I'm saying it's long time past making the shift to the proper way of measuring things. We can start by reprogramming the consumer to ask the right questions. The only relevant question is how much did it cost to make.
That's my point -- the "proper way of measuring things" has little to do with how much it cost to make.
I consider myself very close to a perfect consumer (rational, well informed, with a long-term view), yet I don't care how much my smartphone cost to make. I only care about whether the $200 I spend is worth the benefit I get out of having the phone. In my opinion, THAT's the proper way of measuring things. My smartphone may have cost only $50 to make, but I happen to think it's a bargain at $200, because I know I'll get much more than $200 of utility and enjoyment out of it. If I turn up my nose because the profit margin is higher than is "proper," I am hurting only myself since I am denying myself the >$200 of benefit from owning the phone.
When there's large participation in the market, prices will naturally approach the "cost to make" as each item becomes commoditized—but until then, your choice is to pay what the market wants for it, or to go without. I happen to think this is a perfect system.
For what it's worth, governments sometimes think the same way you do, and try to do the "proper" thing by instituting price controls. Those always fail, and the market always finds a way around them. Just look at the price controls on rent in NYC.
you don't help the needy at all! Otherwise you'd have a universal/socialised health care system
Stormthirst, the above is a textbook case of a strawman argument. Please research this.
I don't care if the thing can fly me to the mountains on weekends. I only care how many man-hours it takes to make one, from the mine to the shelf.
This is a frequent yet fundamental misunderstanding of how pricing works. A price is set by what the producer thinks you'll pay -- not as a fixed amount/percentage above the production cost. There are many products in the marketplace with a very high profit margin (Apple products for example), and likewise some loss-leaders. The sooner you give up on the notion of matching price with "man-hours it takes to make one," the happier you'll be.
Replying to myself. A point I forgot to make: I set up this laptop to dual-boot with Windows 7. In contrast with Linux, in Windows 7 I had to merely install the wireless driver (no patching this time!) from the manufacturer, then run Windows Update -- it found and installed all the other necessary drivers. Now my hardware is flawless on Windows.
You must understand I am not placing blame on Linux here; there's a reason I am sticking with Linux as my primary OS. It's certainly the fault of manufacturers and OEMs who treat Linux as a third-class citizen (Mac's lodged in the middle) -- but it's pretty funny to read that the author "misses the challenge."
I have to chuckle at this:
I know this is counterintuitive, but there are days I really miss the challenge (and the ensuing celebration) of old-school Linux. Back in the day, getting Linux installed gave many users reason to shout their own variation of “Hoorah” to the clouds.
The challenge is there, if you venture out of in-kernel drivers and supported install scenarios. Yesterday I spent three hours trying to get Linux set up on my new HP Pavilion dm1z -- and I consider myself a competent Linux user.
It took me a little while to set up LVM with the root filesystem managed by LVM. Documentation for configuring GRUB for LVM isn't great, and in some places on the web is outright wrong. Fine, got that. Next, the wireless card is unsupported. To get it to work, you must get the driver from the manufacturer (who fortunately advertises Linux support), then apply patches to it from other sources to get the driver to compile with my kernel version. None of this is documented in one place -- different forums have various snippets that inch me forward. Believe me, I shouted "Hoorah" once I finally spilled enough sweat to get it to work. (After I got this to work, I wrote my own step-by-step instructions to save others the pain.)
Once I got past the wireless issues, I started X and determined that the Synaptics touchpad is misconfigured -- the hardware is touch-sensitive on the physical buttons, so pressing a touchpad button also moves the mouse. The issue appears to be fixed, but it hasn't made it into the version of xf86-input-synaptics that Gentoo has. I had to clone the git repo of that driver, build it myself, and manually set up the rule that masks that area of the touchpad. And even now, it still doesn't work correctly. Now I don't move the mouse when I click, but I also cannot click and drag -- once I click, the cursor is fixed. Now this Linux user is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Challenges still abound, even on the most modern Linux kernel and distributions... just dare to venture out of the entrenched and supported hardware.
Personally I wish MSFT would sell Starter retail for say $35, I'd be buying copies of it like it were going out of style! It would be perfect for older/slower hardware, for SOHOs and other places where you just want the OS to get out of the way so you can run your programs.
Your wish is almost true -- Microsoft allows registered refurbishers to load Windows XP Home and Pro onto used PCs for about that price. For more info, search "Microsoft Registered Refurbisher."
Thanks for the well thought out response. You're right that not paying for stuff certainly doesn't mean that one is a pirate. It just came across like bragging that there's a Torrent for everything, whether free or not.
stopping the practice of usery which is destroying us all
You're right, let's just do away with the concept of interest. I laugh every time I see this. Why don't you become a lender and see if you can compete with lower rates. Do you have experience lending money to the average Joe Schmoe? Do you know how much research and analysis goes into balancing risk with profit?
On a related note, high interest rates are not "destroying" me or anyone else who knows a thing or two about basic finance. Stop owing others money; problem solved.
(It's "usury", by the way.)