One of the things I like about TurboTax is the peace of mind. The company itself certifies that your results are correct, and will even litigate on your behalf if you run into trouble because you used their program.
Would an OSS tax software project have deep enough pockets to provide the same sort of guarantees? Because I think for many people to place their trust in an OSS tax preparation package, they would have to have some assurance that the results weren't going to either get them audited or thrown in prison.
Perhaps if there was a CPA out there who could also hammer out code... anyone?
But they are not very high powered. Probably not even a few hundred milliwatts.
Besides not being high powered, I doubt they're very collimated. After all, the average remote control device only needs to work within about 20 ft.
It's an interesting question, though. How would you know if damage to your eye was caused by a remote control? By the time you discovered the damage, it's likely you'd have forgotten about looking into the wrong end of the remote (as I did when I was a kid... but no damage that I can tell).
Lasers come in two types: continuous-wave (CW) and pulsed. CW can be used constantly, while pulsed cannot.
Most of the high-powered CW lasers are not 100% duty cycle. They are designed to operate continuously, but only for a certain amount of time. Beyond that, they have to be shut down and cooled. You could probably get around it, but that lowers the chance you can pack all the aiming hardware (optical or radar), laser, and cooling gear into the back of a camper-shell covered pickup.
It's even possible to create a laser that can do eye damage (or even damage to the plane) that wouldn't even be in the visible spectrum. For example, a CO2 laser.
Dye lasers are also tunable to just about any wavelength you could want.
It's been shown time and again, in the political sphere as well as in advertising in general, that sensationalism and negative ads leave a far more lasting impression on the average person than do reasonable ads about "relevant" issues.
As a Slashdot user you are likely more intelligent than the average person, so the above may not apply to you; unfortunately, you are also in the minority, and ads are written to appeal to the largest audience possible.
Basically, negative ads work because people remember them. So yes, Kerry does need to examine that strategy if he wants to win.
Certainly. I like the example you provide. That is definitely an example of cause-and-effect.
I do believe that some things happen for a reason -- just not necessarily the reason of a higher power, or what have you. I do, however, believe that a lot of things also happen for no reason. Why does someone die from cancer? Why is there so much suffering in the world? Etc. Equally good arguments can be made for either an elaborate system of cause and effect, or that something happens for no reason at all (i.e., is random).
I tend to prefer the simpler explanation. Simpler models tend to be accurate more often than complex ones. The challenge is finding one that describes what happens.
Anyway, I'm digressing. I just wanted to show you, hopefully, that although I don't claim to be a person of faith, neither do I consider myself a bigot and/or an asshole (though I can be an asshole at times, I admit -- but I don't consider myself particularly bigoted, except perhaps against slackers).
Just out of curiosity, what is your field / area of study / area of interest? Are you in the computers field or something else?
Well, let's have a careful analysis of what I wrote, shall we?
I believe the phrase in question is "religious nuts."
What I meant to say, specifically, was that there are certain people who are rather religious and would have people believe that there is no such thing as coincidence -- everything that happens, happens according to a plan. See, for example, the "intelligent design" school of thought.
I personally disagree with it, and I think a lot of those people are nuts.
Now, I did not mean to say I think they are all nuts. Neither did I mean to say that all people who subscribe to some sort of religious philosophy are nuts.
But, of course, your opinion (that anyone who does not have faith is an "asshole" and a "bigot") is perfectly valid. I happen to disagree with it, but it's cool with me if you want to say it.
However, I know at least half a dozen people who subscribe to no religious philosophy whatsoever, and who are neither an asshole nor a bigot. Who have you been hanging out with?
I'm particularly attuned since I'm taking a probability class this semester.
There is a really excellent Web article titled Coincidences: Remarkable or Random? that I came across.
The thing that really caught my eye was where it shows mathematically that if you randomly select any twenty-three people from anywhere, there is a 50 percent probability that at least two of those people share the same birthdate. Nifty stuff.
Just because you happened to receive less spam this month than you did last month, and at the same time, hurricanes happen to be slamming Florida, does not necessarily mean hurricanes are slowing spammers down. Nor does it mean that all--or even most--spammers are located in Florida.
Sometimes luck is just luck. There is such a thing as coincidence, in spite of what the religious nuts may try to tell you.
This got me wondering, though. What if, for example, I was to do something like this to my wife's car? I own the car, right? So I should be able to modify it (within safety concerns of course) how I see fit.
Not that I'm saying I'd stalk my own wife, or anything. I'm just wondering what makes stalking one's girlfriend fundamentally different than stalking, say, one's wife.
Yes. Absolutely. He is an inspiration to all us geeks who think, in some illogical way, that knowing at all times what your object of interest is doing, will somehow increase our chances of getting laid.
I for one think he should write a howto and upload it to the Linux Documentation Project. Perhaps it could be tied into the howto about "how to bring more girls into computer science." Knowing where they are at all times is the first step to trapping them, er, I mean, getting them interested.
Yeah - and also don't try to change the battery during a time of day when you think your girlfriend / stalkee might drive somewhere or walk outside.
I mean, come on -- if you've gotta use a battery and not a hardwired power source, change the battery at 3 am. Preferably after she's gotten back from a party and is pretty sloshed, or something.
Although the article said it was a "cellular phone," depending on just how determined / obsessed this guy was, it could have been a satellite phone. I'm not sayin, I'm just sayin.
Oh, I agree, wholeheartedly. That's what a free market economy is about.
But out here in the sticks, we pretty much only get service from Verizon, since they're the only ones with a tower.
Verizon or nothing... hmm. If it weren't for my wife's insistence on having a cell phone, I'd choose the latter and put that $45/month into wireless internet.
Fortunately you had a reasonable employer. I don't think a lot of people would have the luxury of saying, "Nope, that's a Windows box, I'm not touching it." I think in that case, a lot of employers would simply drop you like a hot potato. Especially since it's very easy to do when you've just been hired and you're still in your 30-90 day probationary period.
I like to be idealistic too, but not when it interferes with the livelihood of me and my family. The whole Linux-vs-Windows thing simply isn't important enough to me to place my job in jeopardy.
Fortunately, it's not an issue: I use both at work, and both systems are equally well liked.
What do you want to bet the tech(s) who originally figured out how to cripple the phone hear about this, un-cripple it (or at least tell how), and collect the bounty?
I'd do it if it were me. Hopefully the pot grows enough to offset the lost income if Verizon finds out and fires the guilty party, though.
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I told you. You don't get your gun until you tell me your name.
UC does not and never has "run the city," as you put it. The County of Los Alamos is in charge of that (well, more concisely, the City Council).
LANL is big enough to be its own city, but is "across the bridge" from the actual town.
I thought you said $0.83 each, as in per share. So how could you, then, purchase 610,000 shares for $0.0083?
One of the things I like about TurboTax is the peace of mind. The company itself certifies that your results are correct, and will even litigate on your behalf if you run into trouble because you used their program.
... anyone?
Would an OSS tax software project have deep enough pockets to provide the same sort of guarantees? Because I think for many people to place their trust in an OSS tax preparation package, they would have to have some assurance that the results weren't going to either get them audited or thrown in prison.
Perhaps if there was a CPA out there who could also hammer out code
Don't you just love op-ed pieces disguised as news articles? Michael does.
Well, uh, those would be ... infrared.
... but no damage that I can tell).
But they are not very high powered. Probably not even a few hundred milliwatts.
Besides not being high powered, I doubt they're very collimated. After all, the average remote control device only needs to work within about 20 ft.
It's an interesting question, though. How would you know if damage to your eye was caused by a remote control? By the time you discovered the damage, it's likely you'd have forgotten about looking into the wrong end of the remote (as I did when I was a kid
Yeah -- but there's a flaw in your logic.
Lasers come in two types: continuous-wave (CW) and pulsed. CW can be used constantly, while pulsed cannot.
Most of the high-powered CW lasers are not 100% duty cycle. They are designed to operate continuously, but only for a certain amount of time. Beyond that, they have to be shut down and cooled. You could probably get around it, but that lowers the chance you can pack all the aiming hardware (optical or radar), laser, and cooling gear into the back of a camper-shell covered pickup.
It's even possible to create a laser that can do eye damage (or even damage to the plane) that wouldn't even be in the visible spectrum. For example, a CO2 laser.
Dye lasers are also tunable to just about any wavelength you could want.
Oh. Whoops. My apologies.
Well, the first words out of the submitter's mouth were "Due to a shipping error, I received it early," or did you miss that part?
Well, yes. But the date in the book and the date in the movie were different (by five years).
It's sad that here it is, three years after the date of the book, and we don't have AI that even approaches HAL's capabilities.
...but which year did he come online in Urbana -- 1992 or 1997? How am I going to put this down on my history timeline?
It's been shown time and again, in the political sphere as well as in advertising in general, that sensationalism and negative ads leave a far more lasting impression on the average person than do reasonable ads about "relevant" issues.
As a Slashdot user you are likely more intelligent than the average person, so the above may not apply to you; unfortunately, you are also in the minority, and ads are written to appeal to the largest audience possible.
Basically, negative ads work because people remember them. So yes, Kerry does need to examine that strategy if he wants to win.
Certainly. I like the example you provide. That is definitely an example of cause-and-effect.
I do believe that some things happen for a reason -- just not necessarily the reason of a higher power, or what have you. I do, however, believe that a lot of things also happen for no reason. Why does someone die from cancer? Why is there so much suffering in the world? Etc. Equally good arguments can be made for either an elaborate system of cause and effect, or that something happens for no reason at all (i.e., is random).
I tend to prefer the simpler explanation. Simpler models tend to be accurate more often than complex ones. The challenge is finding one that describes what happens.
Anyway, I'm digressing. I just wanted to show you, hopefully, that although I don't claim to be a person of faith, neither do I consider myself a bigot and/or an asshole (though I can be an asshole at times, I admit -- but I don't consider myself particularly bigoted, except perhaps against slackers).
Just out of curiosity, what is your field / area of study / area of interest? Are you in the computers field or something else?
(cracking knuckles and leaning back)
Well, let's have a careful analysis of what I wrote, shall we?
I believe the phrase in question is "religious nuts."
What I meant to say, specifically, was that there are certain people who are rather religious and would have people believe that there is no such thing as coincidence -- everything that happens, happens according to a plan. See, for example, the "intelligent design" school of thought.
I personally disagree with it, and I think a lot of those people are nuts.
Now, I did not mean to say I think they are all nuts. Neither did I mean to say that all people who subscribe to some sort of religious philosophy are nuts.
But, of course, your opinion (that anyone who does not have faith is an "asshole" and a "bigot") is perfectly valid. I happen to disagree with it, but it's cool with me if you want to say it.
However, I know at least half a dozen people who subscribe to no religious philosophy whatsoever, and who are neither an asshole nor a bigot. Who have you been hanging out with?
I'm particularly attuned since I'm taking a probability class this semester.
There is a really excellent Web article titled Coincidences: Remarkable or Random? that I came across.
The thing that really caught my eye was where it shows mathematically that if you randomly select any twenty-three people from anywhere, there is a 50 percent probability that at least two of those people share the same birthdate. Nifty stuff.
'Cause the guys at MIT have more important problems to solve, namely inventing robotic girlfriends to take to the prom.
Just because you happened to receive less spam this month than you did last month, and at the same time, hurricanes happen to be slamming Florida, does not necessarily mean hurricanes are slowing spammers down. Nor does it mean that all--or even most--spammers are located in Florida.
Sometimes luck is just luck. There is such a thing as coincidence, in spite of what the religious nuts may try to tell you.
This got me wondering, though. What if, for example, I was to do something like this to my wife's car? I own the car, right? So I should be able to modify it (within safety concerns of course) how I see fit.
Not that I'm saying I'd stalk my own wife, or anything. I'm just wondering what makes stalking one's girlfriend fundamentally different than stalking, say, one's wife.
Yes. Absolutely. He is an inspiration to all us geeks who think, in some illogical way, that knowing at all times what your object of interest is doing, will somehow increase our chances of getting laid.
I for one think he should write a howto and upload it to the Linux Documentation Project. Perhaps it could be tied into the howto about "how to bring more girls into computer science." Knowing where they are at all times is the first step to trapping them, er, I mean, getting them interested.
Yeah - and also don't try to change the battery during a time of day when you think your girlfriend / stalkee might drive somewhere or walk outside.
I mean, come on -- if you've gotta use a battery and not a hardwired power source, change the battery at 3 am. Preferably after she's gotten back from a party and is pretty sloshed, or something.
Although the article said it was a "cellular phone," depending on just how determined / obsessed this guy was, it could have been a satellite phone. I'm not sayin, I'm just sayin.
Oh, I agree, wholeheartedly. That's what a free market economy is about.
... hmm. If it weren't for my wife's insistence on having a cell phone, I'd choose the latter and put that $45/month into wireless internet.
But out here in the sticks, we pretty much only get service from Verizon, since they're the only ones with a tower.
Verizon or nothing
Fortunately you had a reasonable employer. I don't think a lot of people would have the luxury of saying, "Nope, that's a Windows box, I'm not touching it." I think in that case, a lot of employers would simply drop you like a hot potato. Especially since it's very easy to do when you've just been hired and you're still in your 30-90 day probationary period.
I like to be idealistic too, but not when it interferes with the livelihood of me and my family. The whole Linux-vs-Windows thing simply isn't important enough to me to place my job in jeopardy.
Fortunately, it's not an issue: I use both at work, and both systems are equally well liked.
What do you want to bet the tech(s) who originally figured out how to cripple the phone hear about this, un-cripple it (or at least tell how), and collect the bounty?
I'd do it if it were me. Hopefully the pot grows enough to offset the lost income if Verizon finds out and fires the guilty party, though.