It's actually been a pretty good strategy thus far. Even if I'd gotten this particular Trojan, my score would still be much lower in the Mac column than in the Windows column. I'll take the 20 years of virus-light computer use, thank you:)
The real question is, now that we have "caught up", are there any decent anti-virus packages for the Mac?
I'm asking this as someone who wouldn't even qualify as a script kiddie...
If you were hacking into sites (blackhat, whitehat, whatever), would you do so from home? I would think that at the very least, you'd get in your car and look for open WiFi. I imagine that with the high-speed cell networks and prepaid phones you could even afford to hack from anywhere with a cell signal.
In my opinion, this is essentially illegal dumping
While the default is Google search, I know of at least two instances of carriers/handset makers changing it out. Samsung had a Verizon Android version of the Galaxy S with Bing search and Motorola had some Droid models with Yahoo search.
It does not magically turn into "willful" simply by passing through court.
That's not my claim. My claim is that, once you have been told that you do have to pay taxes by a court, if you continue to not pay them, it is quite obviously willful. Further, you don't get a free pass on the taxes you were ignorant of - you still have to pay them.
If one is not willfully avoiding and they are dragged into court, any subsequent avoidance will of course be willful. So the term "willful" realistically is only a speed bump. You will still owe the back taxes and you will still go to jail if you do not pay them.
Ultimately, not paying your taxes will still lead to jail time.
Is your "evasion" limited to the word "willful"? You'd have to be a hermit or have an IQ below room temperature to not realize that you have to pay income tax. There are many, many statutes dedicated to explicit tax fraud - I only clipped two that deal with deliberate non-payment.
How is it "invading" someone's privacy when they willingly give away their personal information to you?
Facebook has changed the way they share your personal information several times since I joined up, sometimes doing something as blatant as default sharing information that was previously hidden.
My bank also has a lot of my personal information, but I don't expect them to one day just throw some of it up on their website.
I understand the relationship between a person and a bank vs a person and a social media website is completely different, but I wanted to use a really extreme example to make my point.
Any person required under this title to collect, account for, and pay over any tax imposed by this title who willfully fails to collect or truthfully account for and pay over such tax shall, in addition to penalties provide by the law, be guilty of a felony
- Shall be imprisoned not more than 5 years
- Or fined not more than $250,000 for individuals ($500,000 for corporations)
- Or both , together with the costs of prosecution
Title 26 USC 7203
Willful failure to file return, supply information, or pay tax
Any person required under this title to pay any estimated tax or tax, or required by this title or by regulations made under authority thereof to make a return, keep any records, or supply any information, who willfully fails to pay such estimated tax or tax, make such return, keep such records, or supply such information, at the time or times required by law or regulations, shall, in addition to other penalties provided by law, be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof:
- Shall be imprisoned not more than 1 years
- Or fined not more than $100,000 for individuals ($200,000 for corporations)
- Or both, together with cost of prosecution
Jail time for unpaid debt is not the exclusive domain of taxes. Six US states, and several nations, practice it.
That's an excellent point, and I was not aware that any US states still had debtors prisons. I'm not a big fan of debtors prison (as you might have guessed), so I find this a bit disconcerting. Anyway, I happily retract my claim that taxes are different than other contracts in this regard.
That said, taxes are still enforced through threat of force:)
Tax is a contract you sign by staying in a country.
So what? Let's say I concede your point and that I signed your contract when I was by chance born into your country. You are still enforcing a contract with threat of force. Any other contract I sign, there is not a threat of force on the other end.
"Buying a TV on credit is forced payment"
No, because the worst they can do if I don't pay is take the unpaid-for goods away. I cannot go to prison for violating a revolving credit contract. Recent law also allows garnishing of wages, but still no jail time.
I understand your point - you do not have to be any clearer. I disagree with your ideology, that is all. Do you agree that taxes are collected through threat of force?
Bullshit, we use milli-inches at work all the time. We also use a measure of grams-force/milli-inches^2, just to make the young engineers' heads explode.
As a benefit, I'm really good at converting between unit types now.
It's not theft unless you're being forced to stay in the area for which you're being levied a tax.
Who said "theft"? Taxes are completely different than theft - but they are a bit like robberies in that you are taking someone's property under threat of force.
Build a raft and see how well you'll cope with independence.
Well, I used the example of warlordism, but yeah I'm with you here. It is quite pragmatic to choose to pay one's taxes.
If you choose to stay and avail yourself of the commons' resources without contributing back - and if you're staying there, you are using them whether you want to or not - then you're not paying your debts and society has ways of penalizing that.
That's a nice rationale, but it still doesn't change the fact that, at the end of the day you are taking something through threat of force.
I'm not anti-tax - quite the opposite. I think you'll end up paying "taxes" one way or another, since someone will expect their protection money if there is no working government. Might as well pay a somewhat functional democratic-ish government rather than some warlord or mafia boss. I just don't necessarily agree with your ideals on the matter. If you want to know the why, I'll be happy to expand on that with you - but I just want to be clear that we agree that taxes are taken through threat of force so that our discussion can be more fruitful.
Taxes aren't the only way for a government to raise money, either. Many governments fund roads with tolls. Many governments get their funding by nationalizing an industry (oil being in vogue currently). Hell, the US government hasn't even had income tax for 100 years yet (almost...). In the Bahamas they wait until you die and then take your back taxes out of your estate.
I also don't pretend to be green. But I think it is not always hypocrisy... Someone who puts 5000 miles/year on an SUV isn't really doing that much environmental damage. I know a family who have an economy car for commuting, their spouse takes the train, and they have a bigass Ford Explorer for trips and general hauling of kids and for when the weather turns to snow. They hardly put any miles on the Exlporer, and the commuting parent is a doctor and so needs the 4-wheel-drive so that they can make the snow-route commute to the hospital. They also don't preach "green" but I did talk her out of a Leaf recently... she leases a Versa and put 4000 miles on it in 2 years!
as set by the majority of the people in that segment of land.
In other words, pay what the majority says or go to prison.
Don't get me wrong, I'm on board with taxes as a necessary evil - but I harbor no grand delusion that I'm not taking people's property by force. It's just, better a democratic government than a warlord - which is exactly what happens in places where the government is too weak to collect taxes. I'm not on board with the idealism of the "social contract", but I am on board with the simple pragmatism of paying taxes being better than the alternative.
Slashdot Mirror
I still think it might be prudent to consider some kind of anti-virus program at this point.
How it security by obscurity treating you now?
It's actually been a pretty good strategy thus far. Even if I'd gotten this particular Trojan, my score would still be much lower in the Mac column than in the Windows column. I'll take the 20 years of virus-light computer use, thank you :)
The real question is, now that we have "caught up", are there any decent anti-virus packages for the Mac?
Never heard of wood?
Ever heard of fire?
Wooden office buildings haven't been in vogue for about 150 years or so.
I was just quoting the EPA. I'm sure you could drive conservatively and get the numbers up.
If only... gold would make a terrible parachute.
I'm asking this as someone who wouldn't even qualify as a script kiddie...
If you were hacking into sites (blackhat, whitehat, whatever), would you do so from home? I would think that at the very least, you'd get in your car and look for open WiFi. I imagine that with the high-speed cell networks and prepaid phones you could even afford to hack from anywhere with a cell signal.
But certainly not from your home network?
In my opinion, this is essentially illegal dumping
While the default is Google search, I know of at least two instances of carriers/handset makers changing it out. Samsung had a Verizon Android version of the Galaxy S with Bing search and Motorola had some Droid models with Yahoo search.
Windows resellers were forbidden from doing this.
It does not magically turn into "willful" simply by passing through court.
That's not my claim. My claim is that, once you have been told that you do have to pay taxes by a court, if you continue to not pay them, it is quite obviously willful. Further, you don't get a free pass on the taxes you were ignorant of - you still have to pay them.
If one is not willfully avoiding and they are dragged into court, any subsequent avoidance will of course be willful. So the term "willful" realistically is only a speed bump. You will still owe the back taxes and you will still go to jail if you do not pay them.
Ultimately, not paying your taxes will still lead to jail time.
Is your "evasion" limited to the word "willful"? You'd have to be a hermit or have an IQ below room temperature to not realize that you have to pay income tax. There are many, many statutes dedicated to explicit tax fraud - I only clipped two that deal with deliberate non-payment.
How is it "invading" someone's privacy when they willingly give away their personal information to you?
Facebook has changed the way they share your personal information several times since I joined up, sometimes doing something as blatant as default sharing information that was previously hidden.
My bank also has a lot of my personal information, but I don't expect them to one day just throw some of it up on their website.
I understand the relationship between a person and a bank vs a person and a social media website is completely different, but I wanted to use a really extreme example to make my point.
Some relevant tax statutes:
Jail time for unpaid debt is not the exclusive domain of taxes. Six US states, and several nations, practice it.
That's an excellent point, and I was not aware that any US states still had debtors prisons. I'm not a big fan of debtors prison (as you might have guessed), so I find this a bit disconcerting. Anyway, I happily retract my claim that taxes are different than other contracts in this regard.
That said, taxes are still enforced through threat of force :)
Sorry didn't mean to reply to you - you made the same point!
A Slingbox is okay because it's your own device rebroadcasting to you--fair use.
Isn't this just a slingbox that I am renting?
I laseto slealren to type in highk scohkol and am stilklk quite proficetetnt.
We just use gallons because that's how the Brits shipped wine to us in the late 1700s when we rebelled. There was no "imperial" gallon then.
Now we prefer French wine :)
Tax is a contract you sign by staying in a country.
So what? Let's say I concede your point and that I signed your contract when I was by chance born into your country. You are still enforcing a contract with threat of force. Any other contract I sign, there is not a threat of force on the other end.
"Buying a TV on credit is forced payment"
No, because the worst they can do if I don't pay is take the unpaid-for goods away. I cannot go to prison for violating a revolving credit contract. Recent law also allows garnishing of wages, but still no jail time.
I understand your point - you do not have to be any clearer. I disagree with your ideology, that is all. Do you agree that taxes are collected through threat of force?
Bullshit, we use milli-inches at work all the time. We also use a measure of grams-force/milli-inches^2, just to make the young engineers' heads explode.
As a benefit, I'm really good at converting between unit types now.
Twibright Optar can squeeze 200kb per page, so Apple would only need to ship you 13 double-sided sheets of paper for a 5MB AAC.
No; in other words: Pay the rent or leave.
That's not what we do. We say pay or sit in jail.
It's not theft unless you're being forced to stay in the area for which you're being levied a tax.
Who said "theft"? Taxes are completely different than theft - but they are a bit like robberies in that you are taking someone's property under threat of force.
Build a raft and see how well you'll cope with independence.
Well, I used the example of warlordism, but yeah I'm with you here. It is quite pragmatic to choose to pay one's taxes.
If you choose to stay and avail yourself of the commons' resources without contributing back - and if you're staying there, you are using them whether you want to or not - then you're not paying your debts and society has ways of penalizing that.
That's a nice rationale, but it still doesn't change the fact that, at the end of the day you are taking something through threat of force.
I'm not anti-tax - quite the opposite. I think you'll end up paying "taxes" one way or another, since someone will expect their protection money if there is no working government. Might as well pay a somewhat functional democratic-ish government rather than some warlord or mafia boss. I just don't necessarily agree with your ideals on the matter. If you want to know the why, I'll be happy to expand on that with you - but I just want to be clear that we agree that taxes are taken through threat of force so that our discussion can be more fruitful.
Taxes aren't the only way for a government to raise money, either. Many governments fund roads with tolls. Many governments get their funding by nationalizing an industry (oil being in vogue currently). Hell, the US government hasn't even had income tax for 100 years yet (almost...). In the Bahamas they wait until you die and then take your back taxes out of your estate.
Don't we have a saying around here about having physical access to a device?
I didn't see any thunderbolt-to-thunderbolt cables on that link. Those were all converters to a cheaper kind of cable.
Not that I think the Apple store is a place for good prices on accessories... :)
I also don't pretend to be green. But I think it is not always hypocrisy... Someone who puts 5000 miles/year on an SUV isn't really doing that much environmental damage. I know a family who have an economy car for commuting, their spouse takes the train, and they have a bigass Ford Explorer for trips and general hauling of kids and for when the weather turns to snow. They hardly put any miles on the Exlporer, and the commuting parent is a doctor and so needs the 4-wheel-drive so that they can make the snow-route commute to the hospital. They also don't preach "green" but I did talk her out of a Leaf recently... she leases a Versa and put 4000 miles on it in 2 years!
as set by the majority of the people in that segment of land.
In other words, pay what the majority says or go to prison.
Don't get me wrong, I'm on board with taxes as a necessary evil - but I harbor no grand delusion that I'm not taking people's property by force. It's just, better a democratic government than a warlord - which is exactly what happens in places where the government is too weak to collect taxes. I'm not on board with the idealism of the "social contract", but I am on board with the simple pragmatism of paying taxes being better than the alternative.
I think the more important point "buy a bike" guy is making is that if you think being "green" is so important, then why do you drive a car?
I agree that was his point, which is why I was critical. It's a ridiculous point to make :)