3077 counties! Oh lordy! How would we keep track of so many different taxes? That would take either a big piece of paper, or several, even! Too bad there isn't a better way of keep track of lists of things...
It also varies by the type of product or service being sold. I'm most familiar with restaurant-related sales taxes (I helped develop a Point-of-Sale system used throughout the country), and there are places that tax differently depending on the specific product (i.e. milk and soda have different sales tax rates). There are places that have different sales tax rates based on whether you eat the food at the restaurant or take it out of the restaurant.
In the real world, each business charges sales taxes based on the seller's location. The residence of the buyer is totally irrelevant. Each business only has to worry about the one set of taxes that apply in that one location.
And yet stores like Wal-mart have no problem collecting sales tax from these thousands of different sales tax jurisdictions.
That's because each store only has to deal with one sales tax structure, not thousands.
The reality is that physical stores charge the sales tax of the seller's location, not the buyer's location. That may not be the intent of the law, but that's the way it actually works.
I'm a developer, and I want a single machine that can run any software, regardless of OS.
OS/X is the only OS that can't legitimately be run on non-Mac hardware (and until recently, couldn't even be run virtually on Mac hardware).
I'm not interested in cobbling together a Hackintosh system (and hoping that Apple doesn't "break" it whenever they feel like it), so if I want to include a legitimate OS/X system, I have to have a Macintosh.
Once I have a Mac, I can then legitimately run both Windows and Linux (and presumably *-BSD if I need that option) in VMs. Fortunately, that works well, so I have a single laptop that runs every OS I might want to use.
If Apple allowed OS/X to run on generic hardware, I would have at least considered a different laptop (probably a ThinkPad), but fortunately I am very happy with my MacBook as a primary system.
That's why I picked a Macintosh as my primary system. It is the best way to (legally and within licensing terms) get a single machine that runs anything.
It does seem a shame that I have to pick the most locked-down system in order to get the least locked-down environment, but there it is.
FYI, I don't play games on my system, so I don't need Windows as a native OS.
Almost every company for which I've worked had management that dreamed of being "tied in" to a big vendor. Makes me wonder if a prerequisite for getting into upper management is being into bondage.
I've actually seen director types get almost panicky when I've suggested a solution that bypassed the "officially approved" big vendor. They didn't even want to hear of the possibility of saving money or providing a better solution, because it would break that "special bond" they had with ${BIG_VENDOR}.
The DC/X was an inexpensive test vehicle, using off-the-shelf technology. The X33 was a hugely expensive boondoggle that perfectly demonstrates what's wrong with NASA.
I've seen suggestions to adding the "out of service" tones to the beginning of your voicemail prompt. Here's a URL with some information (including a WAV file with the appropriate tones):
Not everyone has an email address. And, I'm sure that the people without email address are predominately from the lower economic stratus. So, that's one source for bias in your exit polling idea.
Also, the vast majority of people wouldn't bother registering for this exit poll, so it would take a relatively small effort to get the supporters of one side to disproportionally register, leading to an inaccurate exit poll.
Finally, anyone in a position to capture these email messages with the special code could sell them to the highest bidder.
Your idea would do nothing to make an exit poll more accurate, but it would throw valid elections into doubt.
Jerry Pournelle has used this in a number of his stories dating back to the early 1970s.
In addition to The Mote in God's Eye, where aliens used enormous lasers to send a solar sail-based ship across interstellar distances, he described a laser-based system to launch small (VW Beetle-sized) manned capsules into orbit.
Ask him how Hubble would have got up there--and got repaired--without it.
They could have launched them the same way the military has been launching similar spy satellites for 40 years: expendable rockets.
And with the money they would have saved by not using the Shuttle, they could have afforded to build and launch a new Hubble Telescope to replace the broken one.
Filming in 35mm doesn't necessarily mean it was widescreen. The "native" format for 35mm is 4:3.
According to IMDB, it was shot with spherical lenses in 35mm, which suggests that it was NOT filmed in any sort of widescreen process. (It could have been, but they would then be throwing away a significant part of the image at the time just to make it look better in some hypothetical future version.)
The idea that the owner of a piece of equipment is liable for someone else's unauthorized use of it, simply won't fly.
They are sharing the connection. By definition, that makes the other person an authorized user.
If the OP were to lock down the router, and refuse to give his roommate the password, then maybe he wouldn't have a problem. Of course, then they wouldn't be sharing the connection any more.
Isn't there _something_ that can shift the pitch of a certain frequency into another frequency so I can hear it without amplification?
Some hearing aids do exactly that. The testing and custom configuration of the hearing aids to accomplish this is part of the reason they have become so expensive.
Slashdot Mirror
3077 counties! Oh lordy! How would we keep track of so many different taxes? That would take either a big piece of paper, or several, even! Too bad there isn't a better way of keep track of lists of things...
It also varies by the type of product or service being sold. I'm most familiar with restaurant-related sales taxes (I helped develop a Point-of-Sale system used throughout the country), and there are places that tax differently depending on the specific product (i.e. milk and soda have different sales tax rates). There are places that have different sales tax rates based on whether you eat the food at the restaurant or take it out of the restaurant.
In the real world, each business charges sales taxes based on the seller's location. The residence of the buyer is totally irrelevant. Each business only has to worry about the one set of taxes that apply in that one location.
And yet stores like Wal-mart have no problem collecting sales tax from these thousands of different sales tax jurisdictions.
That's because each store only has to deal with one sales tax structure, not thousands.
The reality is that physical stores charge the sales tax of the seller's location, not the buyer's location. That may not be the intent of the law, but that's the way it actually works.
Just like a Hollywood blockbuster.
That's OK. We'll just start the posts with #2.
Second post!
If C# is now the speed of light- does that mean that Java exceeds the speed of light?
No, Java is still slow.
The problem with the ribbon is that it shows only the functionality I used last, not the functionality I need to use next.
Some people would call this a "buying opportunity".
It was about $50/share when I bought some 4-5 years ago.
I'm not complaining.
I'm a developer, and I want a single machine that can run any software, regardless of OS.
OS/X is the only OS that can't legitimately be run on non-Mac hardware (and until recently, couldn't even be run virtually on Mac hardware).
I'm not interested in cobbling together a Hackintosh system (and hoping that Apple doesn't "break" it whenever they feel like it), so if I want to include a legitimate OS/X system, I have to have a Macintosh.
Once I have a Mac, I can then legitimately run both Windows and Linux (and presumably *-BSD if I need that option) in VMs. Fortunately, that works well, so I have a single laptop that runs every OS I might want to use.
If Apple allowed OS/X to run on generic hardware, I would have at least considered a different laptop (probably a ThinkPad), but fortunately I am very happy with my MacBook as a primary system.
That's why I picked a Macintosh as my primary system. It is the best way to (legally and within licensing terms) get a single machine that runs anything.
It does seem a shame that I have to pick the most locked-down system in order to get the least locked-down environment, but there it is.
FYI, I don't play games on my system, so I don't need Windows as a native OS.
I've actually seen director types get almost panicky when I've suggested a solution that bypassed the "officially approved" big vendor. They didn't even want to hear of the possibility of saving money or providing a better solution, because it would break that "special bond" they had with ${BIG_VENDOR}.
No, you're mixing up the DC/X with the X33.
The DC/X was an inexpensive test vehicle, using off-the-shelf technology. The X33 was a hugely expensive boondoggle that perfectly demonstrates what's wrong with NASA.
I think someone needs a time out.
I've seen suggestions to adding the "out of service" tones to the beginning of your voicemail prompt. Here's a URL with some information (including a WAV file with the appropriate tones):
Wolfram.org
Really dumb idea.
Not everyone has an email address. And, I'm sure that the people without email address are predominately from the lower economic stratus. So, that's one source for bias in your exit polling idea.
Also, the vast majority of people wouldn't bother registering for this exit poll, so it would take a relatively small effort to get the supporters of one side to disproportionally register, leading to an inaccurate exit poll.
Finally, anyone in a position to capture these email messages with the special code could sell them to the highest bidder.
Your idea would do nothing to make an exit poll more accurate, but it would throw valid elections into doubt.
I wonder whatever happened to them?
The obvious solution then is folding cargo ships!
In addition to The Mote in God's Eye, where aliens used enormous lasers to send a solar sail-based ship across interstellar distances, he described a laser-based system to launch small (VW Beetle-sized) manned capsules into orbit.
I know of at least one time when the FDAs reluctance to approve a new drug turned out to be a very good decision.
Thalidomide
Tell that to the 27 men who flew through the Van Allen Belts in the '60s and '70s.
They could have launched them the same way the military has been launching similar spy satellites for 40 years: expendable rockets.
And with the money they would have saved by not using the Shuttle, they could have afforded to build and launch a new Hubble Telescope to replace the broken one.
Um... Yes they are.
Filming in 35mm doesn't necessarily mean it was widescreen. The "native" format for 35mm is 4:3.
According to IMDB, it was shot with spherical lenses in 35mm, which suggests that it was NOT filmed in any sort of widescreen process. (It could have been, but they would then be throwing away a significant part of the image at the time just to make it look better in some hypothetical future version.)
They are sharing the connection. By definition, that makes the other person an authorized user.
If the OP were to lock down the router, and refuse to give his roommate the password, then maybe he wouldn't have a problem. Of course, then they wouldn't be sharing the connection any more.
Hope you enjoy being the girlfriend of the inmate with the most cigarettes!
Some hearing aids do exactly that. The testing and custom configuration of the hearing aids to accomplish this is part of the reason they have become so expensive.