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User: Dunbal

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Comments · 12,109

  1. Re:The original /. on Goodbye, Lotus 1-2-3 · · Score: 1

    I remember cutting square holes on the "other" side of single sided floppies, turning them into double sided floppies, lol. Hell I remember punchcards. Damn I'm old. I just built myself a system and for fun I have 64GB of RAM... a SSD hard drive, and a screaming i7 processor. Kids these days have no idea how good they have it. I remember fiddling with drivers to cram that extra kb or 2 out of that bit of memory between 640kb and 1024kb - the order in which the drivers were loaded was important! Hell, I remember buying a 256kb "expansion card" and being amazed! CGA - Amazed! EGA - Amazed! I'm so old, I think I'll go rest now zzzzzzzzzzz

  2. Re:Will they be open-sourcing it? on Goodbye, Lotus 1-2-3 · · Score: 1

    Well obviously they would have no right to release code belonging to a 3rd party without that party's consent.

  3. Re:Apple’s side: on Web of Tax Shelters Saved Apple Billions, Inquiry Finds · · Score: 1

    In that case, I agree. It's as if the US thought it was entitled to the money I make trading stocks on the US market. No. I've got my W-8 form filled out, I live overseas, I reside overseas, I'm hardly ever in the US. I don't pay US taxes. Curiously though I get automatically taxed on my dividends. Fair enough, it's not enough money to complain. I pay the taxes I owe in my country of residence. Now, some US citizen who suddenly decides he wants to do what I do needs to first renounce his US citizenship - because US citizens must pay income tax on their worldwide income even if they don't live in the US. Not doing this means breaking the law.

    But I'm not a US citizen. The money I have belongs to an offshore entity, as do the profits. And that's that. If I spend more than 3 months in the US though I become liable for tax. Because thanks to Bill Clinton, that's what the law now says. So I don't.

  4. Re:Its a Shame on Hollywood Studios Use DMCA To Censor Pirate Bay Documentary · · Score: 1

    It's ashamed that their lawyers won't get disbarred for it.

  5. Re:Apple’s side: on Web of Tax Shelters Saved Apple Billions, Inquiry Finds · · Score: 1

    If they paid their taxes on the way out of the US, then there's no reason that the US can use to tax them again if the money was transferred to non-resident corps. Once the money is offshore, it's offshore. But you have to pay your taxes before you can take it out. And of course your offshore corp is not allowed to conduct any business in that country without being considered a resident for tax. It's one or the other. Either this is just another big political stink by greedy politicians who don't understand that the US can't tax the whole world, or someone at Apple screwed up somewhere. I guess we'll find out.

  6. Re:The original /. on Goodbye, Lotus 1-2-3 · · Score: 1

    I remember our computer lab at school had one machine with 8" floppies. All the other machines - the ones we could use - were 5 1/4" though. Ahhh, brings back days of Adventure, Flight Simulator, and "Trek"! No wonder I never got anything done in high school!

  7. Re:Will they be open-sourcing it? on Goodbye, Lotus 1-2-3 · · Score: 1

    Er, libraries and other proprietary stuff is usually made available in the shape of LIB files added in at link time, or DLL's. You don't get the source code for them anyway. So what's the problem?

  8. Re:Apple’s side: on Web of Tax Shelters Saved Apple Billions, Inquiry Finds · · Score: 3, Informative

    From TFA: " It has created offshore entities holding tens of billions of dollars, while claiming to be tax resident nowhere."

    Everything you quoted fails to account for the above, from TFA. If it's true, then Apple is evading tax and breaking the law. Everyone (person or corporation) is resident somewhere.

  9. Re:No tax, no law? on Web of Tax Shelters Saved Apple Billions, Inquiry Finds · · Score: 1

    You can't not be a resident of any nation. You are automatically resident in the nation where your corporation was drawn up and "incorporated", and you can provide documentation to substantiate a change of residence for tax purposes. If you say, become resident of Costa Rica for tax purposes (Costa Rica currently has no income tax on income derived outside of Costa Rica), you don't have to pay tax on foreign income. If you earn one penny in Costa Rica, you have to pay tax on it. If you earn in the US, you pay tax on it before it leaves the country. You can't just "renounce" your residence and pretend that's a "Get out of Taxes Free" card. That's not tax avoidance, that's tax evasion.

  10. Re:Did they break any laws? on Web of Tax Shelters Saved Apple Billions, Inquiry Finds · · Score: 2

    I do believe that corporations have to be resident somewhere. Even if it's Panama or the Cayman Islands. You cannot claim that your corporation is not resident anywhere in the world.

  11. Re:Dell should have declared bankruptcy on Dell Dumps Its Public Cloud Offerings · · Score: 1

    Nope. CompuAdd. I remember now. Far cheaper than Dell, and much nicer machines. Hell even Gateway was cheaper than Dell.

  12. Re:please stop calling it piracy on Latvian Police Raid Teacher's Home for Uploading $4.00 Textbook · · Score: 2

    most people aren't as stupid as you think they are

    You're quite right. Most people actually turn out to be quite a bit dumber.

  13. Re:Don't copy that floppy! on Latvian Police Raid Teacher's Home for Uploading $4.00 Textbook · · Score: 2

    Except, copyright laws all over the world usually have an exemption for education. As for people losing money - "Website created by the teacher, because many children do not have the funds to purchase teaching materials." from TFA. How are you losing money when they can't afford to buy your product in the first place? That's the age old MAFIAA argument and it's utter BS. I'm sure the teacher wasn't paying massive bandwidth charges because everyone on Latvia was accessing his page. And finally, copyright is CIVIL law not CRIMINAL law. How would you like to be thrown in jail because your neighbor thinks you built your fence 1" on his property?

  14. Re:Don't copy that floppy! on Latvian Police Raid Teacher's Home for Uploading $4.00 Textbook · · Score: 2

    But this is exactly what the copyright lobby wants from law enforcement. Draconian response to the odd incident, which will scare the sheep and keep them in line. How many teachers in that country are going to put textbooks online now?

  15. Re:Dell should have declared bankruptcy on Dell Dumps Its Public Cloud Offerings · · Score: 1

    Not CompUSA... some other direct marketer with Comp in their name. I had a 33MHz 386 from them but I can't remember the brand name anymore. Too damned old.

  16. Re:Dell should have declared bankruptcy on Dell Dumps Its Public Cloud Offerings · · Score: 1

    A past that never happened? I remember DELL on the back cover of PC and Byte Magazines. And I remember the day of the $5000 Dell computer. Dell never competed on price - at least not at the beginning. The "cheap computers" were to be had from CompUSA, "Fast Data", and other dealers, for a good $2000 or more less than a Dell machine.

  17. Re:At the board meeting on Dell Dumps Its Public Cloud Offerings · · Score: 1

    Yeah, typo. Well spotted. I never used to make them but now I'm getting older :(

  18. Re:Dell should have declared bankruptcy on Dell Dumps Its Public Cloud Offerings · · Score: 1

    Dell was good when they were charging IBM prices for PC's. They were innovators to some extent. I had a few early Dell machines and they were the best specs you could buy, back in the 1980's. As soon as they started competing on price, I imagine they switched to bargain basement suppliers. Now everyone knows that to own a Dell is to have to buy a new machine the very second the warranty expires if not sooner, AND having to deal with perhaps the worst support and service in the industry. But Michael Dell made his money long ago, I'm sure he's not too worried either way. It's the shareholders' problem now.

  19. At the board meeting on Dell Dumps Its Public Cloud Offerings · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Someone overheard part of the conversation which went something like "it turns out that people aren't as dumb as we though they were".

  20. Re:McAfee is an attention whore loser on Interviews: McAfee Says House Fire Was No Accident · · Score: 1

    Page hits. People either agreeing or disagreeing, they don't care. It's page hits to sell ad space, the more hits the better.

  21. Re:Paging Mr Darwin on Uptick In Whooping Cough Linked To Subpar Vaccines · · Score: 0

    I plan on eating a lot of your seed corn, so you'd better get back to work, son.

  22. Re:Not that it will happen. on Medical Firm Sues IRS For 4th Amendment Violation In Records Seizure · · Score: 1

    They usually take the whole server and not one fuck is given. 'cos they're the gubmint.

  23. Re:New IRS dress code on Medical Firm Sues IRS For 4th Amendment Violation In Records Seizure · · Score: 1

    You know the drill. The lawyers will get $120 million, the company that filed the suit will get $2-3 million, and everyone else will get 25 cents provided they show up in person to collect it.

  24. Re:Hazardous to our Health on Medical Firm Sues IRS For 4th Amendment Violation In Records Seizure · · Score: 1

    Besides, "this was a long time ago"

  25. Re:Silver lining on Mice, Newts Retrieved After a Month Orbiting Earth At 345 Miles Up · · Score: 0

    Yup and I'm coming up on 9000 posts soon. Do the math! Actually I don't really harm any puppies, I just think it's a very politically INcorrect thing to say, because everyone loves puppies! Oh btw I have 2 dogs, a maltese and a miniature french poodle.