$875,000,000 * 7.5% estimated federal employer withholding = $65,625,000
Is it possible that the majority of the $100 million saved came from BoA not having to pay the employer portion of employee withholding to the Federal government?
If so, then it all US citizens that have to pay when these companies outsource and not just those whose jobs have been replaced.
It's a pity Gates & Jobs couldn't join in rather then attempting to downplay the fine efforts of this group.
Which Jobs are you talking about? The only one I am familiar with (Steve), offered free Mac OS X licenses to this group for all the laptops. His offer was declined. You can argue all you want about his motives, but you really can't say that he "downplayed" anything.
Gates, on the other hand, mocked the group's effort.
- Apple change the "rules" about how users can use their music (number of CDs a song can be burnt onto was reduced) using the DRM and software updates, even when the songs have ALREADY been purchased by the users.
Why let facts get in the way of a good rant?
Apple has absolutely no restrictions on the number of times a song can be burned. What they restrict is the number of times a playlist which contains "protected" songs can be burned.
Can you honestly give a valid personal use reason why you would need to burn the same playlist of somebody else's music more than 10 times?
Unless both the email Sender (you) and the Recipient are using Digital Keys/Signatures, the contents of your email are about as secure as Imelda Marcos in a shoe store.
<obStewie> Ha ha ha! Oh gosh that's funny! That's really funny! Do you write your own material? Do you? Because that is so fresh. You are the weakest link goodbye. You know, I've, I've never heard anyone make that joke before. Hmm. You're the first. I've never heard anyone reference, reference that outside the program before. Because that's what she says on the show right? Isn't it? You are the weakest link goodbye. And, and yet you've taken that and used it out of context to insult me in this everyday situation. God what a clever, smart girl you must be, to come up with a joke like that all by yourself. That's so fresh too. Any, any Titanic jokes you want to throw at me too as long as we're hitting these phenomena at the height of their popularity. God you're so funny! </obStewie>
Today, if there's something up there that's brilliant, I just get out my pen and my Tablet PC and recreate it.
If this isn't an example of what is wrong with "the Microsoft Way", I don't know is.
Problem: I need to make a copy of something on a white board.
Microsoft Solution: Get a PC tablet and redraw by hand. Analysis: Yes it works, but is complicated and expensive. You need an expensive piece of niche computing hardware, spend significant time to copy, and end up with a "lossy" version.
Alternate Solution: Use an inexpensive digital camera (5 - 7 MP). Analysis: Simple, fast, and significantly less lossy.
Iron-nuclei radiation affects the aging of cells, which is possibly one of the reasons astronauts who have been to the Moon tend to get cataracts about 7 years earlier than other astronauts.
I glad they can draw such conclusions given a sample size of 12.
According to TFA, in January '06, there were 18,568,000 unique users of iTunes. In 2005, Apple sold 32 million iPods.
That's 32 million iPods and 18.5 million iTunes users. What are the other 14 million people using to get music into their iPods? The only way the 18.5 million iTunes users could be true would be if people, on average, bought two iPods for themselves over the course of the year.
'Hardware is a small part of the cost' of providing computing capabilities, he said
... a very small part, where Windows is concerned.
Re:Explain the fricken 12,000 bucks for this...
on
WinXP on a Mac, Hoax?
·
· Score: 5, Informative
They have stated over and over again that it would be impossible for someone to boot XP on a Intel Mac. Now we have claims by someone that it can be done.
I think you have that backwards.
Apple has said they don't care if you want to by their hardware and boot XP on it, feel free. They're not doing anything to stop it, but they are also not doing anything to enable it.
What they are against is Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware.
Comcast would probably not be happy if TiVo suddenly turned their PVR into the new cablebox of the IPTV revolution. Can anyone say lawsuit?
Are you kidding? Comcast would love it.
Why?
Because:
(a) they only support first gen CableCards (b) if you want dual-tuner on that Series 3, you need two CableCards (c) they will charge you two "additional outlet fees" (at $9 per month per card) for those two cards.
So, the cost to use a Series 3 on Comcast: $9 (Comcast) + $9 (Comcast) + $13 (Tivo) = $31 / month
I learned this recently when I wanted to get a CC for my TV. I already have a DCT 6412 STB and wanted to get an additional CC for the TV itself. Every Comcast CSR stated that I cannot do this unless I pay the AO fee, even though I am already paying one for the TV itself. My argument is that their published rate schedule lists the CC as a "free" rental and "additional outlets" are defined as "additional televisions", since I am using it on a TV that already is paying an AO fee, I should not have to pay an ADDITIONAL AO fee for the same TV. Not so according to Comcast.
On the other side, DVRs are becoming a ubiquitous commodity on set-tops boxes, and it doesn't seem like Tivo can really offer them anything besides the name Tivo, which is probably the most valuable thing Tivo owns (witness the on-again off-again nature of their deal with Comcast).
Have you ever used a STB DVR? Their interface redefines the word "sucks".
I have a DCT-6412 Phase II from Comcast (Dual Tuner HDTV DVR) and a Series 1 Tivo. The DVR portion of the STB goes mostly unused - I pick up a few shows each week that are HD on it. Everything else gets picked up by the Tivo. Yes, the interface is that bad.
When I first got the STB, I tried to completely replace the Tivo, but couldn't. The interface is sllllooooooowwwwwww. During normal operation, button presses are delayed anywhere from.5 to 3 seconds. Occasionally, the unit won't respond for 10 or 15 seconds, but it will queue all your remote presses... so when it comes back alive, it freaks out by executing all the commands you sent it when you thought it wasn't getting your keypresses.
Unless you select from the Guide, picking shows to record is a chore. First, to select by title, they give you a five character 1983 video game high score selector: A A A A A . You go to each letter, press up or down to find the appropriate character, press right to continue on. Combine this with the molasses-like interface and it is downright painful.
The system is buggy, too. For example, let's say you don't want you kids to see that "Hot, Naked Coeds" is playing on Channel 199 (VOD). You can't hide the channel in the guide, but you can set the system to replace adult titles with "Adult Programming". This works well until you go to pick a program to record. Adult titles in this list appear where they would if the "Adult Programming" title was not in effect (eg - "Hot, Naked Coeds" would, appropriately, be filed under "HO"). However, if you scan down the list of titles, the system will eventually get tripped up on "Adult Programming" appearing in the list and reset you back to the "AD" titles. This makes it impossible to scan down the title list. My theory is that when "Adult Programming" appeared at a specific location on the list (eg - first or last), the system got confused and assumed you were still in the "A"s.
The only two things that the STB has going for it are: (1) Dual tuners and (2) HDTV recording. The Tivo Series 3 is going to fix that, though. My hope is that Comcast will make a smart choice and offer Tivo Series 3 as an option next year sometime as their DVR offering. Because their current offering, when compared with Tivo, just plain sucks.
I would be afraid of the guy who came to my door asking if he could test whether or not my computer was infected with spyware(doubly so since I use a mac:P), and if you just ask people, 9/10 they won't know but will probably make up a answer anyway.
It's funny you mention this. Last year (Sept, 2005), Consumer Reports had an issue dealing with personal computers. This is an actual quote from the article:
Only 20 percent of Mac owners surveyed reported detecting a virus in the past two years, compared with 66 percent of Windows PC owners. Just 8 percent of Mac users reported a spyware infection in the last six months vs. 54 percent of Windows PC users.
There is NO WAY those Mac results are accurate. I think what happened is that these Mac users got occasional pop-ups saying "Your machine is infected with (spyware|viruses). Protect yourself now by clicking here". So, they did and the problem "went away". As far as they were concerned, they were infected.
I wouldn't blame the users as they shouldn't have to know better. I would blame CR for a faulty survey - if you ask questions that either require specialized knowledge (how many Mac users know what spyware is) or could generate a false positive (such as a user confusing an infection with a pop-up), then you really aren't doing a good job providing accurate results.
Re:Verizon's recent purchase makes this subject mo
on
Is Verizon a Network Hog?
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Is it just me or does this article appear to be confusing two issues?
(1) Pay-to-play - ISP's charging content providers so that traffic to and from their site is not delayed (Internetwork traffic) (2) QoS - ISPs doing QoS to reserve bandwidth for specific applications they themselves offer their own customers (Intranetwork traffic)
But we are talking about a Federal document. A driver's license is a state requirement. There is nothing in the Constitution that would prevent a state from saying you DON'T need a license to drive.
There also is nothing in the Constitution about the right to use the bathroom without the supervision of a Government agent. You don't value that, now do you? Would you be upset if that ability were taken away?
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know how many "thousands" actually is, but assuming 2500 employees at $70k/year, here are some quick calculations:
2,500 employees * $70,000 annual salary * 5 years = $875,000,000
$875,000,000 * 7.5% estimated federal employer withholding = $65,625,000
Is it possible that the majority of the $100 million saved came from BoA not having to pay the employer portion of employee withholding to the Federal government?
If so, then it all US citizens that have to pay when these companies outsource and not just those whose jobs have been replaced.
- Tony
Using the lower number gives us a distance of 2850 kilometers in 50 million years.
You mean the lower number that is the relative speed between two plates that are moving away from each other?
Read what you posted again:
South America and Africa are moving apart at an average of 5.7 cm per year
The implication is that South America is moving 2.85 cm west each year and Africa is moving 2.85 cm east each year.
Since you are dealing with the absolute speed of a single plate (not its relative speed to another), you could "get away" with 2.85 cm per year.
However, since we are talking about either North American plate or the Eurasian plate, you should use 1.15 cm/year or 0.95 cm/year. This would be a worst case of around 600 km.
- Tony
They don't even use stylesheets for proper styling.
The horror!
Do they use tables and eat babies, too?
It's a pity Gates & Jobs couldn't join in rather then attempting to downplay the fine efforts of this group.
Which Jobs are you talking about? The only one I am familiar with (Steve), offered free Mac OS X licenses to this group for all the laptops. His offer was declined. You can argue all you want about his motives, but you really can't say that he "downplayed" anything.
Gates, on the other hand, mocked the group's effort.
- Apple change the "rules" about how users can use their music (number of CDs a song can be burnt onto was reduced) using the DRM and software updates, even when the songs have ALREADY been purchased by the users.
Why let facts get in the way of a good rant?
Apple has absolutely no restrictions on the number of times a song can be burned. What they restrict is the number of times a playlist which contains "protected" songs can be burned.
Can you honestly give a valid personal use reason why you would need to burn the same playlist of somebody else's music more than 10 times?
- Tony
From TFA:
Unless both the email Sender (you) and the Recipient are using Digital Keys/Signatures, the contents of your email are about as secure as Imelda Marcos in a shoe store.
<obStewie>
Ha ha ha! Oh gosh that's funny! That's really funny! Do you write your own material? Do you? Because that is so fresh. You are the weakest link goodbye. You know, I've, I've never heard anyone make that joke before. Hmm. You're the first. I've never heard anyone reference, reference that outside the program before. Because that's what she says on the show right? Isn't it? You are the weakest link goodbye. And, and yet you've taken that and used it out of context to insult me in this everyday situation. God what a clever, smart girl you must be, to come up with a joke like that all by yourself. That's so fresh too. Any, any Titanic jokes you want to throw at me too as long as we're hitting these phenomena at the height of their popularity. God you're so funny!
</obStewie>
Today, if there's something up there that's brilliant, I just get out my pen and my Tablet PC and recreate it.
If this isn't an example of what is wrong with "the Microsoft Way", I don't know is.
Problem: I need to make a copy of something on a white board.
Microsoft Solution: Get a PC tablet and redraw by hand.
Analysis: Yes it works, but is complicated and expensive. You need an expensive piece of niche computing hardware, spend significant time to copy, and end up with a "lossy" version.
Alternate Solution: Use an inexpensive digital camera (5 - 7 MP).
Analysis: Simple, fast, and significantly less lossy.
I have the perfect name:
OS Defender
There shouldn't be a problem with that, right?
- Tony
Apple does marketing because of its products.
Microsoft does marketing in spite of its products.
> Microsoft executive Goldberg bristles at the notion that little innovative work has come out of the Windows group since XP.
This executive's first name wouldn't happen to be Rube, would it?
- Tony
Iron-nuclei radiation affects the aging of cells, which is possibly one of the reasons astronauts who have been to the Moon tend to get cataracts about 7 years earlier than other astronauts.
I glad they can draw such conclusions given a sample size of 12.
According to TFA, in January '06, there were 18,568,000 unique users of iTunes. In 2005, Apple sold 32 million iPods.
That's 32 million iPods and 18.5 million iTunes users. What are the other 14 million people using to get music into their iPods? The only way the 18.5 million iTunes users could be true would be if people, on average, bought two iPods for themselves over the course of the year.
- Tony
They have stated over and over again that it would be impossible for someone to boot XP on a Intel Mac. Now we have claims by someone that it can be done.
I think you have that backwards.
Apple has said they don't care if you want to by their hardware and boot XP on it, feel free. They're not doing anything to stop it, but they are also not doing anything to enable it.
What they are against is Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware.
- Tony
it's ten 60GB iPods.
Does that mean he can go deaf ten times faster?
Comcast would probably not be happy if TiVo suddenly turned their PVR into the new cablebox of the IPTV revolution. Can anyone say lawsuit?
Are you kidding? Comcast would love it.
Why?
Because:
(a) they only support first gen CableCards
(b) if you want dual-tuner on that Series 3, you need two CableCards
(c) they will charge you two "additional outlet fees" (at $9 per month per card) for those two cards.
So, the cost to use a Series 3 on Comcast: $9 (Comcast) + $9 (Comcast) + $13 (Tivo) = $31 / month
I learned this recently when I wanted to get a CC for my TV. I already have a DCT 6412 STB and wanted to get an additional CC for the TV itself. Every Comcast CSR stated that I cannot do this unless I pay the AO fee, even though I am already paying one for the TV itself. My argument is that their published rate schedule lists the CC as a "free" rental and "additional outlets" are defined as "additional televisions", since I am using it on a TV that already is paying an AO fee, I should not have to pay an ADDITIONAL AO fee for the same TV. Not so according to Comcast.
- Tony
As a DCT 6412 user and Tivo owner, I'll warn you that you'll probably still use your Tivo as your primary PVR.
- Tony
The game involves battling the authorities to overthrow corrupt officials using only street fighting skills and graffiti.
No word yet on if Turk 182 has been banned.
On the other side, DVRs are becoming a ubiquitous commodity on set-tops boxes, and it doesn't seem like Tivo can really offer them anything besides the name Tivo, which is probably the most valuable thing Tivo owns (witness the on-again off-again nature of their deal with Comcast).
.5 to 3 seconds. Occasionally, the unit won't respond for 10 or 15 seconds, but it will queue all your remote presses... so when it comes back alive, it freaks out by executing all the commands you sent it when you thought it wasn't getting your keypresses.
Have you ever used a STB DVR? Their interface redefines the word "sucks".
I have a DCT-6412 Phase II from Comcast (Dual Tuner HDTV DVR) and a Series 1 Tivo. The DVR portion of the STB goes mostly unused - I pick up a few shows each week that are HD on it. Everything else gets picked up by the Tivo. Yes, the interface is that bad.
When I first got the STB, I tried to completely replace the Tivo, but couldn't. The interface is sllllooooooowwwwwww. During normal operation, button presses are delayed anywhere from
Unless you select from the Guide, picking shows to record is a chore. First, to select by title, they give you a five character 1983 video game high score selector: A A A A A . You go to each letter, press up or down to find the appropriate character, press right to continue on. Combine this with the molasses-like interface and it is downright painful.
The system is buggy, too. For example, let's say you don't want you kids to see that "Hot, Naked Coeds" is playing on Channel 199 (VOD). You can't hide the channel in the guide, but you can set the system to replace adult titles with "Adult Programming". This works well until you go to pick a program to record. Adult titles in this list appear where they would if the "Adult Programming" title was not in effect (eg - "Hot, Naked Coeds" would, appropriately, be filed under "HO"). However, if you scan down the list of titles, the system will eventually get tripped up on "Adult Programming" appearing in the list and reset you back to the "AD" titles. This makes it impossible to scan down the title list. My theory is that when "Adult Programming" appeared at a specific location on the list (eg - first or last), the system got confused and assumed you were still in the "A"s.
The only two things that the STB has going for it are: (1) Dual tuners and (2) HDTV recording. The Tivo Series 3 is going to fix that, though. My hope is that Comcast will make a smart choice and offer Tivo Series 3 as an option next year sometime as their DVR offering. Because their current offering, when compared with Tivo, just plain sucks.
- Tony
It's funny you mention this. Last year (Sept, 2005), Consumer Reports had an issue dealing with personal computers. This is an actual quote from the article:
There is NO WAY those Mac results are accurate. I think what happened is that these Mac users got occasional pop-ups saying "Your machine is infected with (spyware|viruses). Protect yourself now by clicking here". So, they did and the problem "went away". As far as they were concerned, they were infected.
I wouldn't blame the users as they shouldn't have to know better. I would blame CR for a faulty survey - if you ask questions that either require specialized knowledge (how many Mac users know what spyware is) or could generate a false positive (such as a user confusing an infection with a pop-up), then you really aren't doing a good job providing accurate results.
- Tony
Couldn't we just refer to the protocol as BHP?
Is it just me or does this article appear to be confusing two issues?
(1) Pay-to-play - ISP's charging content providers so that traffic to and from their site is not delayed (Internetwork traffic)
(2) QoS - ISPs doing QoS to reserve bandwidth for specific applications they themselves offer their own customers (Intranetwork traffic)
- Tony
Google hasn't seemed to have a problem with releasing products that have no discernable source of revenue.
They plan on making it up in volume.
- Tony
You have to have a driver's license to drive.
But we are talking about a Federal document. A driver's license is a state requirement. There is nothing in the Constitution that would prevent a state from saying you DON'T need a license to drive.
There also is nothing in the Constitution about the right to use the bathroom without the supervision of a Government agent. You don't value that, now do you? Would you be upset if that ability were taken away?
Except for the Fourth Amendment, of course.
- Tony