IIRC, a 1099 is only required if the total amount is >$600 by Dec 31.
Using petty cash for this type of thing is interesting though. Although it's barely a rounding error in a company of their size, even a $2 pack of Bics from Staples produces a receipt. Can't imagine there's any paper trail in a scheme like this.
Re:Of course the map is wrong...
on
Open US GPS Data?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
The US Gov't does have a free nationwide map you can use TIGER (Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing) Produced by the Census Bureau. When was the last Census done? 8 years ago? Yea that gives you an idea of how accurate the TIGER map is.
In 2002 the Census Bureau contracted Harris to update the centerlines and attributes nationwide. Approximately 1200 of 3200 counties in the US have been completed with another 300 or so due in March. Details on the "MAF/TIGER Accuracy Improvement Project" are here: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/index.html
In fairness, the ethics involved in the initial "cost-savings" decisions should be separated from ethics of how the situation is handled after the problem is revealed.
It's pretty well documented that he exhibited uber-ethics by owning up to the engineering problem immediately after a student pointed out the miscalculations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_LeMessurier. Point being, he could have just lawyered up but that's not how responsible engineers behave. There was also a Nova program years ago that documented the whole story.
Agreed, if they didn't own the desktop monopoly. They'd be just another Yahoo. But they can control the address bar on their desktops in that Yahoo's mass would be truly redirected into IE/Windows this time, not just a toolbar or a dropdown for selecting Yahoo search that no one notices. There are lots of "innovative" ways to hook users beyond their past attempts like brain-dead proprietary logins.
Back to the point, if the purchase of Yahoo eventually results in some tipping point within search, how do you stop the ball rolling?
Based on the history of Google we know that search drives ad sales. That's the majority of Google's revenue. Microsoft's ad revenue is a mere blip within their overall sales. Windows, Office, etc. pay the bills and will for a long time to come.
What happens to Google if Microsoft gets just enough of a foothold in the search space to take significant ad revenue from Google? Isn't that what they're proposing to spend $44B to accomplish, to kneecap Google's ad revenue in the long run? It's not a matter of fighting over 10% of search traffic one way or the other, what's at stake is the domination of ad revs because of Google's reliance on it.
The point was that the balance is more delicate because of the Windows monopoly. Maybe, maybe not.
The idea that this would make Microsoft a bigger "monopoly" is unfounded because neither Microsoft nor Yahoo! has anywhere close to the highest marketshare of online searches or advertising.
Well, ok, but isn't the true fear that they'll have the ammunition to slowly eat their way into another monopoly position?
Imagine in five years a world where Microsoft handles 60% of search traffic. The screws start turning from that point and there's no going back, just like Windows.
Why would you want to run a consumer desktop operating system in a virtual environent? How will that help you being more efficient? Microsoft can't be seriously promoting the use of their desktop OS for server tasks, are they??
I'm running Ubuntu (AMD-64) on two home and three business machines. Each has XP virtualized (512MB memory, 8GB image) for the few apps that couldn't pass muster with Wine (or Crossover). Acrobat 7.0, for example. All XP instances are full retail licenses, perfectly legal via an MSDN subsription in 2002. The only software cost has been $180 for VMWare Workstation which was worth every penny.
Point is, Microsoft hasn't seen a dime from me in 5 years, not even OEM revenue since all hardware is via Newegg; not Dell, etc. This program at least holds out the possibility that I might purchase a Vista license in the future (which will be virtualized again, no possibility it will be the primary OS). The chances are very slim but greater than zero.
Of course this "sample of one" is probably atypical and not what Microsoft is targeting. It's a data point nonetheless.
Re:So why would SUN buy MYSQL - discussion!
on
Sun Buys MySQL
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Ulterior motives aside, looking at it from the marketing perspective it presents a nice unified package for the big boys. On the golf course the sales drones will have clear tit-for-tat competition with MS's offerings.
So why is this important for the internet? Until now, no platform vendor has assembled all the core elements of a completely open source operating system for the internet. No company has been able to deliver a comprehensive alternative to the leading proprietary OS. With this acquisition, we will have done just that - positioned Sun at the center of the web, as the definitive provider of high performance platforms for the web economy. For startups and web 2.0 companies, to government agencies and traditional enterprises. This creates enormous potential for Sun, for the global free software community, and for our partners and customers across the globe. There's opportunity everywhere.
There seems to be a lot more racist AC posts lately. Wondering if the ulterior motive is to suck up mod points and basically dilute the moderation system?
Also, isn't this one word, along with a regexp of it, that should trigger a longer than usual time-out before AC submission? It would avoid censorship since the post would still submit, just severely speedbumped. It's used so infrequently that if someone decides to use it in a "valid" post, the delay would be a minor inconvenience. For trolls creating throwaway accounts, the IP/username association slows them down anyway.
Of course the slippery slope is doing the same for myminicity, goatse links...
Just to clarify, "worst offender" is probably a little too harsh.
They sold your information just like the American Cancer Society, Krogers, the NRA, Focus on the Family, Time Magazine and just about every other business/charity does. This is the basis for targeted mailing lists coupled with massive databases like those maintained by Acxiom.
"Specialty selects" are commonly available and the more targeted the information, the higher the cost for renting the list. For example, peruse this company sometime: http://www.infousa.com./ Then, to get a feel for the mindset of direct marketers, read up at http://www.directmag.com./
Point is, this is really standard stuff in mailing and marketing. It's been going on forever and be going away any time soon.
Slashdot Mirror
IIRC, a 1099 is only required if the total amount is >$600 by Dec 31.
Using petty cash for this type of thing is interesting though. Although it's barely a rounding error in a company of their size, even a $2 pack of Bics from Staples produces a receipt. Can't imagine there's any paper trail in a scheme like this.
The US Gov't does have a free nationwide map you can use TIGER (Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing) Produced by the Census Bureau. When was the last Census done? 8 years ago? Yea that gives you an idea of how accurate the TIGER map is.
In 2002 the Census Bureau contracted Harris to update the centerlines and attributes nationwide. Approximately 1200 of 3200 counties in the US have been completed with another 300 or so due in March. Details on the "MAF/TIGER Accuracy Improvement Project" are here: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/index.html
* Citigroup Center (1978), William LeMessurier
In fairness, the ethics involved in the initial "cost-savings" decisions should be separated from ethics of how the situation is handled after the problem is revealed.
It's pretty well documented that he exhibited uber-ethics by owning up to the engineering problem immediately after a student pointed out the miscalculations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_LeMessurier. Point being, he could have just lawyered up but that's not how responsible engineers behave. There was also a Nova program years ago that documented the whole story.
Ah, after more than a decade, the Kottke troll may finally have run it's course.
In the case of Vista it is actually insightful and informative.
(captcha: casket)
Agreed, if they didn't own the desktop monopoly. They'd be just another Yahoo. But they can control the address bar on their desktops in that Yahoo's mass would be truly redirected into IE/Windows this time, not just a toolbar or a dropdown for selecting Yahoo search that no one notices. There are lots of "innovative" ways to hook users beyond their past attempts like brain-dead proprietary logins.
Back to the point, if the purchase of Yahoo eventually results in some tipping point within search, how do you stop the ball rolling?
Based on the history of Google we know that search drives ad sales. That's the majority of Google's revenue. Microsoft's ad revenue is a mere blip within their overall sales. Windows, Office, etc. pay the bills and will for a long time to come.
What happens to Google if Microsoft gets just enough of a foothold in the search space to take significant ad revenue from Google? Isn't that what they're proposing to spend $44B to accomplish, to kneecap Google's ad revenue in the long run? It's not a matter of fighting over 10% of search traffic one way or the other, what's at stake is the domination of ad revs because of Google's reliance on it.
The point was that the balance is more delicate because of the Windows monopoly. Maybe, maybe not.
The idea that this would make Microsoft a bigger "monopoly" is unfounded because neither Microsoft nor Yahoo! has anywhere close to the highest marketshare of online searches or advertising.
Well, ok, but isn't the true fear that they'll have the ammunition to slowly eat their way into another monopoly position?
Imagine in five years a world where Microsoft handles 60% of search traffic. The screws start turning from that point and there's no going back, just like Windows.
What a coincidence, last night I met a girl in an AOL chatroom with the exact same name.
I can't even count on my two hands the girls I know personally who are as good if not better looking than she is.
You could have saved us some reading time by leaving out the "who are as good..." part.
Why would you want to run a consumer desktop operating system in a virtual environent? How will that help you being more efficient? Microsoft can't be seriously promoting the use of their desktop OS for server tasks, are they??
I'm running Ubuntu (AMD-64) on two home and three business machines. Each has XP virtualized (512MB memory, 8GB image) for the few apps that couldn't pass muster with Wine (or Crossover). Acrobat 7.0, for example. All XP instances are full retail licenses, perfectly legal via an MSDN subsription in 2002. The only software cost has been $180 for VMWare Workstation which was worth every penny.
Point is, Microsoft hasn't seen a dime from me in 5 years, not even OEM revenue since all hardware is via Newegg; not Dell, etc. This program at least holds out the possibility that I might purchase a Vista license in the future (which will be virtualized again, no possibility it will be the primary OS). The chances are very slim but greater than zero.
Of course this "sample of one" is probably atypical and not what Microsoft is targeting. It's a data point nonetheless.
"Don't digg me, bro." --Slashdot
Ulterior motives aside, looking at it from the marketing perspective it presents a nice unified package for the big boys. On the golf course the sales drones will have clear tit-for-tat competition with MS's offerings.
From the official blog:
So why is this important for the internet? Until now, no platform vendor has assembled all the core elements of a completely open source operating system for the internet. No company has been able to deliver a comprehensive alternative to the leading proprietary OS. With this acquisition, we will have done just that - positioned Sun at the center of the web, as the definitive provider of high performance platforms for the web economy. For startups and web 2.0 companies, to government agencies and traditional enterprises. This creates enormous potential for Sun, for the global free software community, and for our partners and customers across the globe. There's opportunity everywhere.
Way OT:
There seems to be a lot more racist AC posts lately. Wondering if the ulterior motive is to suck up mod points and basically dilute the moderation system?
Also, isn't this one word, along with a regexp of it, that should trigger a longer than usual time-out before AC submission? It would avoid censorship since the post would still submit, just severely speedbumped. It's used so infrequently that if someone decides to use it in a "valid" post, the delay would be a minor inconvenience. For trolls creating throwaway accounts, the IP/username association slows them down anyway.
Of course the slippery slope is doing the same for myminicity, goatse links...
Sorry, no.
I think Ms. Teen South Carolina would agree with your central thesis.
The married slashdotters are always easy to spot.
Is this just a sandy vagina move
Out of curiosity, what was Sandy's position at Netscape?
Or simply that BestBuy's lawyers and GE's lawyers worked out an agreement to their mutual satisfaction. Branding, marketing, etc.
Just curious, how long did it take you to become proficient with vim? To the point where you felt totally comfortable using it instead of nano, etc.?
I once made a bet with a friend that some day we would see the terms "Perl 6" and "vibrating butt plug" in the same sentence.
Kicking myself for not saying paragraph instead of sentence.
in 4...3...2...85...
for what it's worth, I wrote my own, multi user, multi tasking unix clone somewhere in 92/93
Shouldn't that be "GNU/my own, multi user, multi tasking unix clone somewhere in 92/93"?
Sue me. Or us. Or him.
Okay.
Whoa. Coincidentally, that's the optimum incubation temperature for Mothra larvae.
For the sake of humanity, let's hope that Sun is factoring this into their cooling calculations.
Me to
Just to clarify, "worst offender" is probably a little too harsh.
They sold your information just like the American Cancer Society, Krogers, the NRA, Focus on the Family, Time Magazine and just about every other business/charity does. This is the basis for targeted mailing lists coupled with massive databases like those maintained by Acxiom.
"Specialty selects" are commonly available and the more targeted the information, the higher the cost for renting the list. For example, peruse this company sometime: http://www.infousa.com./ Then, to get a feel for the mindset of direct marketers, read up at http://www.directmag.com./
Point is, this is really standard stuff in mailing and marketing. It's been going on forever and be going away any time soon.