You do realize that admission to an institution of higher education is contingent upon agreement to and abidement by a code of conduct, right?
You do realize that there are some things you can't sign away in a contract, right? No judge is going to enforce a clause that says he can't criticise a teacher, especially when he hasn't even named him.
In what way? Silly that people would want to see the innards of their hard drives, or silly that a hd company should be attempting to make money from those who do?
I looked it up. It was Lee Trevino. The IRS decided that paying for the operation was a gift to the caddy, and I don't think they cared who Trevino actually wrote the check out to.
I sure hope it's true, because I've been filing accordingly for decades.
Gift taxes are so fucking evil. I heard about a famous pro golfer who paid for his caddy to have a heart operation, and the fucking IRS demanded that he pay gift tax on top of paying for the operation.
I would assume that if the debt forgiveness is intended as a gift, then it's subject to gift tax.
That's correct. However, consider the following: A rich man holds a lavish dinner party, at which he slanders his son: "Son, you are a wastrel, and you are sympathetic to unsavory people like televangelists and scientologists!" His son says: "Dad, you've slandered me! I'll sue!", promptly files suit, and before going to trial, the father settles the suit for as much as he intended to leave to his son. Should be tax free.
According to the article, the IPS doesn't expect to collect any of the money. So it is likely that they will cancel the debt.
What for?
The proceeds of a lawsuit aren't income as far as tax law is concerned, since the legal theory is that the judgment "makes whole" the damage done to the plaintiff. So, the ISP has a debt on their books, which they can write down and take a tax loss on. If they write off ten million of it per year, they're basically tax free for as long as they care to be.
Of course, if the award is reduced on appeal, then you figure the tax implications on the reduced amount.
Interesting.. I hadn't realized that the market had hit that point yet. I guess if oil stays over $60 a barrel for another year or so, people might get back to crushing shale, too.
Do you have any real experience programming with C++ or any real experience programming at all?
Do you have any real experience with software engineering, or have you just memorized enough of the minutia of a horrificaly complex language to think you're hot stuff?
I've been writing code in many, many languages since 1977, and doing so professionally since 1982. I once considered C++ an improvement over C, but I revised that opinion once I saw Objective-C, which made me understand just how badly Stroustrup had botched his attempt to add object orientation to C.
As a specific example, C++ gives you RAII which when used properly helps avoid all kinds of resource finalization errors.
Thrillsville. You're a fan of side-effects. May you spend the rest of your career sorting out static constructors executing before main().
For an encore, want to tell me how templates can save loads of time writing code, which you then lose debugging the fucking templates?
I could provide (as others have) more examples of C++ features (many of which can be used alone) which make C++ often a good replacement for C
No, you can't. You can trot out yet another of the C++ misfeatures that people like you are so proud of, and crow about how they solve issues that I left behind a decade ago.
Okay, let's just pretend for a second that all of the "science" in this plan is on the up-and-up and that, if they were to share the plans, anybody in the world with the manufacturing capability could replicate their results.
Gosh, you're so clever, using scare quotes around the word "science" and all... Maybe you could come up with a cogent criticism instead of your ignorant posturing?
It works. It's been demonstrated. Propylene boils at the temperature of the surface water, and condenses at the temperature of the deep water. You can run a turbine from the cycle. You can run power lines under water, it's been done for years to supply power to islands. The question is whether it's economically feasible. Got any light to shed on that?
So if it's so good why haven't we done it before on a large scale?
Economics. We haven't done OT power generation yet, for the same reason that we're not steaming oil out of tar sands or using solar electricity to electrolyze hydrogen. Petroleum is still pretty cheap. If another technology crosses its price/power curve, then we'll move to that.
Gosh, I am disappointed in the quality of nerds these days.
Tell me about it!
Every time there's any discussion of an alternative energy technology, you get hundreds of people posting to demonstrate their complete lack of understanding of scale.
Ocean thermal energy won't reverse the gulf stream. Windmills won't stop the wind. Bringing cold water to the surface won't cause an ice age.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh, and I forgot the most important one: overthrowing King George III and founding our country.
-jcr
People are still free to say whatever they want, but they shouldn't expect to avoid the punishment of being arrested.
There's a difference between criminal and civil consequences. If you slander someone, you're in danger of losing money for damages, not your liberty.
-jcr
Since I haven't named you, does that exempt me from libel?
Well, for it to be libellous, you have to make allegations that actually cause me some harm. Remember the Butthead Astronomer?
-jcr
Thirdly, it sounds grand, all this drivel about 'ignore immoral laws'; just you try to do that in America.
Many people have, and they've changed the country for the better. The underground railroad, the civil rights movement...
-jcr
Do you believe that Microsoft and MSN should obey the law and avoid illegal practices?
Get serious. MS violates US law if it will make them money, and China has never had the rule of law.
-jcr
If he'd ragged on this teacher by name, then it might possibly be libellous. Since he didn't, there's nobody with a cause of action against him.
-jcr
You do realize that admission to an institution of higher education is contingent upon agreement to and abidement by a code of conduct, right?
You do realize that there are some things you can't sign away in a contract, right? No judge is going to enforce a clause that says he can't criticise a teacher, especially when he hasn't even named him.
-jcr
So what? He didn't name the teacher.
-jcr
Not by a long shot. The school stands in breach of conract, and the student should fry their asses in court.
-jcr
Front Row computers don't have TV or digital video recorder functions and thus don't need as many buttons.
With a properly-designed UI on the freaking screen, you don't need 39 buttons on the remote.
-jcr
Nobody makes fun of Apple for going out of their way to make iPods look good, because they are good.
I notice that Apple makes the enclosure of the iPod opaque.
Does a window on a disk drive actually make it look good?
-jcr
it's nowhere as silly as a necktie. I mean, have you seen those things ? What sort of fool would spend money on those, much less actually wear one ?!?
;-)
I've worn one when it was a requirement of the brokerage house where I was working. Mind you, I charged accordingly.
-jcr
In what way? Silly that people would want to see the innards of their hard drives, or silly that a hd company should be attempting to make money from those who do?
The former.
-jcr
I looked it up. It was Lee Trevino. The IRS decided that paying for the operation was a gift to the caddy, and I don't think they cared who Trevino actually wrote the check out to.
I sure hope it's true, because I've been filing accordingly for decades.
Doesn't matter. IRS makes it up as they go along.
-jcr
The ocean is very big, even compared to Los Angeles, the Great Lakes, and Love Canal.
Oh, and nobody ever got any seafood from a lake.
-jcr
Or is this idea just silly?
-jcr
That seems beyond excessive.
On the contrary, I find it apallingly lenient. The perp should be doing time for millions of counts of unauthorized use of other people's property.
-jcr
Gift taxes are so fucking evil. I heard about a famous pro golfer who paid for his caddy to have a heart operation, and the fucking IRS demanded that he pay gift tax on top of paying for the operation.
Bastards.
-jcr
I would assume that if the debt forgiveness is intended as a gift, then it's subject to gift tax.
That's correct. However, consider the following: A rich man holds a lavish dinner party, at which he slanders his son: "Son, you are a wastrel, and you are sympathetic to unsavory people like televangelists and scientologists!" His son says: "Dad, you've slandered me! I'll sue!", promptly files suit, and before going to trial, the father settles the suit for as much as he intended to leave to his son. Should be tax free.
-jcr
According to the article, the IPS doesn't expect to collect any of the money. So it is likely that they will cancel the debt.
What for?
The proceeds of a lawsuit aren't income as far as tax law is concerned, since the legal theory is that the judgment "makes whole" the damage done to the plaintiff. So, the ISP has a debt on their books, which they can write down and take a tax loss on. If they write off ten million of it per year, they're basically tax free for as long as they care to be.
Of course, if the award is reduced on appeal, then you figure the tax implications on the reduced amount.
-jcr
But we ARE steaming oil out of tar sands.
Interesting.. I hadn't realized that the market had hit that point yet. I guess if oil stays over $60 a barrel for another year or so, people might get back to crushing shale, too.
-jcr
Do you have any real experience programming with C++ or any real experience programming at all?
Do you have any real experience with software engineering, or have you just memorized enough of the minutia of a horrificaly complex language to think you're hot stuff?
I've been writing code in many, many languages since 1977, and doing so professionally since 1982. I once considered C++ an improvement over C, but I revised that opinion once I saw Objective-C, which made me understand just how badly Stroustrup had botched his attempt to add object orientation to C.
As a specific example, C++ gives you RAII which when used properly helps avoid all kinds of resource finalization errors.
Thrillsville. You're a fan of side-effects. May you spend the rest of your career sorting out static constructors executing before main().
For an encore, want to tell me how templates can save loads of time writing code, which you then lose debugging the fucking templates?
I could provide (as others have) more examples of C++ features (many of which can be used alone) which make C++ often a good replacement for C
No, you can't. You can trot out yet another of the C++ misfeatures that people like you are so proud of, and crow about how they solve issues that I left behind a decade ago.
-jcr
Okay, let's just pretend for a second that all of the "science" in this plan is on the up-and-up and that, if they were to share the plans, anybody in the world with the manufacturing capability could replicate their results.
Gosh, you're so clever, using scare quotes around the word "science" and all... Maybe you could come up with a cogent criticism instead of your ignorant posturing?
It works. It's been demonstrated. Propylene boils at the temperature of the surface water, and condenses at the temperature of the deep water. You can run a turbine from the cycle. You can run power lines under water, it's been done for years to supply power to islands. The question is whether it's economically feasible. Got any light to shed on that?
-jcr
So if it's so good why haven't we done it before on a large scale?
Economics. We haven't done OT power generation yet, for the same reason that we're not steaming oil out of tar sands or using solar electricity to electrolyze hydrogen. Petroleum is still pretty cheap. If another technology crosses its price/power curve, then we'll move to that.
-jcr
Gosh, I am disappointed in the quality of nerds these days.
Tell me about it!
Every time there's any discussion of an alternative energy technology, you get hundreds of people posting to demonstrate their complete lack of understanding of scale.
Ocean thermal energy won't reverse the gulf stream. Windmills won't stop the wind. Bringing cold water to the surface won't cause an ice age.
-jcr