If you want America perfectly safe from all terrorist attacks, you're going to have to encase the entire country in a 600 foot thick concrete tomb. Good luck.
Oh noes! The Mexico border wall was to be one side of that tomb! Our plan is ruined! Flee!
He's got an agenda that gives him the same sort of tunnel vision and myopia that the worst fawning Apple fanboy, snotty Microsoft apologist, or strident BSD partisan has.
This is slashdot. You left out "...or Linux highly reasonable and well-shaven proponent."
TomTom Corp.is out of Belgium, which is reflected in their multilingual features & mapsets. They've been fairly hacker friendly and there are a number of 3rd party addon packages that have shown up over the years.
The deg F scale was based on a reproducible zero point that didn't change by more than.25 deg F and the top end was calibrated to the body temp of a dog and if you have a healthy dog in normal condition that is with in about.25 degrees as well.
The story I was given in college was that the top end was based on the temperature of Fahrenheit's wife, who had a fever at the time.
There's definitely a joke or five in here somewhere...
If you have have ever done any carpentry work and encountered the endless fractional "standard" sizes such as thicknesses of 5/8" or 31/32", and then tried to add those together while holding a bunch of nails between your lips, a 2x4 in one hand and a hammer in the other, you know what I'm talking about.
Doubling numbers is quite easy for me.
What really chaps my ass is how a "two-by-four" isn't two inches by four inches. That just sucks!
People, just 5 years younger than me - don't understand what it was all about. They don't remember... and I'm still young.
I was with you up until there. You were born in '79? I was born ten years earlier, so I spent the '80s as a teenager. There's just no possible way that you could live through the '80s as a teenager and not be affected by the Cold War. I remember having a few (just a few) nightmares about being roasted in a nuclear fire.
That, or I was super clued-in or hypersensitive, which I can't possibly believe.
Then again, after the Challenger disaster, the next morning I woke up with tears streaming down my face. So... yeah, maybe you have a point.
Google stock has gone up by over 500%, it's pretty reasonable to assume the first 100 employees were given at least 2,000 shares over time in the $1-5 range... which would make each of them millionaires.
Assuming it is then released, the IRS is going to count that $20K as INCOME and will want 20-33% tax from this person. All his protestations of "but I gave it to the widow's family as a gift!" won't amount for shit.
No, no, no!
You can receive any amount of money as a gift, and it is NOT TAXABLE. This is why tips are a special category of income. You might think a tip is a "gift" to your server, but the IRS says it's a tip, not a gift, and thus taxable. There used to be these little cards that you could leave on top of your tip that said "This money is a gift, and not a tip". But I don't think they work:)
When you are the one doing the giving, then YOU are the one who has to pay a "gift tax", unless it's under the annual exclusion which is (this year) $12,000 per person you gift. Anything over the annual exclusion goes into the "lifetime estate exclusion" bucket -- so if you pass your estate on to someone after you die, they get to pay taxes on it if the amount of the estate is (this year) $2,000,000 MINUS the lifetime estate exclusion.
WTF does this all mean? These guys can take in $20k and give it to two people without anyone having to pay any taxes at any time. Which is why you were wrong.
If, on the other hand, he gives the full $20k to one person, then $8k is above the exclusion, which means his eventual estate inheritor can now only inherit $1,992,000 tax-free. So he probably still doesn't have to worry, but he shouldn't make this a habit.
I'm not an accountant, but I play one on the Internet!
How is reception/signal strength- cellular, Wifi, and Bluetooth?
It'll most likely be pretty good. Apple does hardware well, and they'd be goofs not to look at this.
Does it drop calls mysteriously? (lot of early smartphones did)
I think smartphones have been around long enough for manufacturers to learn their lessons. No dropping.
Does it explode in shards of expensive bits when dropped on the ground? (treos are famously fragile. Newtons were very tough. Will this be a Treo, or a Newton?)
Yes, it will disintegrate. Lots of phones, PDAs, and smartphones do. It's almost unavoidable (Newtons notwithstanding).
How clueful will Cingular be in sales and tech support?
Not clueful at all. Sales and tech support never is. Go to Apple for that stuff.
Will voicemails in the new "random access voicemail" system get deleted/disappear?
No. "Random access voicemail" is not new -- I've been working on a similar desktop-based "random-access voicemail" app for a large telco for the past four years. It is very, very, very difficult to have voicemails disappear using a random-access voicemail system. Think email, with the additional security of a telco-based voicemail system.
How does the touchscreen feel? Is it a real problem having no actual buttons for tactile use of the phone (say, when driving?)
Like plastic. Expect the screen to need cleaning very frequently because of skin oils. I'm actually glad they decided not to use a stylus. My favorite apps tends to make me use the same button over and over again, and next thing you know, it's several months later and you've got little dots of haze on your screen where the stylus kept banging.
Is the speakerphone loud enough/clear?
Yes, but not in your car. Never in your car.
Is the touchscreen durable?
Under ordinary use, yes. See stylus point above. If you drop it, all bets are off. Also, like the iPod, you can't put your keys into the same pocket as the device. Use a sleeve or a cover. Come June, expect to see the "b-b-b-but it scratches so easily!" whines.
How well does it load pages over EDGE, which by all accounts is high-latency, slow, and already outdated? (I guarantee anything Steve did was over Wifi.)
Good point, I have no guess.
Will it support 802.11N so that it doesn't knock an N network down to G wherever it goes? It'd be pretty stupid to have an N network if your iPhone on your desk knocks you down to G.
Another good point, I have no guess.
I'd look forward to it, but I don't think I'm willing to pay Cingular's unlimited data fees.
And that's just it -- the entire immigration debate (from the high-tech workers to strawberry pickers) is simply an effort to protect our citizens who live in a high-cost society from the majority of the rest of the world, who don't.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh noes! The Mexico border wall was to be one side of that tomb! Our plan is ruined! Flee!
--Rob
This is slashdot. You left out "...or Linux highly reasonable and well-shaven proponent."
--Rob
Maybe "The Beer in the Fridge" should be the sequel to "The Enemy at the Watercooler"...
--Rob
Yes, I'm pretty sure you're correct, that a tax check couldn't possibly be considered a gift, but actually part of the winnings.
--Rob
Well, you could always fit the new polynomial to the lower bound of the tax band curve. That would make many people very, very happy!
--Rob
Wrong.
I hate how this myth keeps getting perpetuated. See my previous explanation.
--Rob
That's for sure!
--Rob
Let's hope that real estate prices get cut in haf :(
--Rob
LOL, Limewire! (linky)
The story I was given in college was that the top end was based on the temperature of Fahrenheit's wife, who had a fever at the time.
There's definitely a joke or five in here somewhere...
--Rob
Doubling numbers is quite easy for me.
What really chaps my ass is how a "two-by-four" isn't two inches by four inches. That just sucks!
--Rob
Okay, I admit it -- I'm an idiot and I got my signs reversed. You may now publically lambast me. Or get me a job at NASA.
--Rob
I was with you up until there. You were born in '79? I was born ten years earlier, so I spent the '80s as a teenager. There's just no possible way that you could live through the '80s as a teenager and not be affected by the Cold War. I remember having a few (just a few) nightmares about being roasted in a nuclear fire.
That, or I was super clued-in or hypersensitive, which I can't possibly believe.
Then again, after the Challenger disaster, the next morning I woke up with tears streaming down my face. So... yeah, maybe you have a point.
--Rob
Well, better late than never.
There's a joke in there somewhere...
--Rob
In other news, the estate of Elvis is reportedly suing all artists signed with RIAA labels due to their use of the "I-IV-V" progression.
I think that there are enough simple melodies polluting the "root melodyspace" to start producing spurious similarities.
--Rob
Well, I am an American living in the US. The US officially uses imperial, but all the bottles of sodas are two-liters! So there! :)
--Rob
It's just a success that hasn't happened yet.
(Thanks, Jon!)
--Rob
Well... at least $40,000-aires (2000*(25-5))
--Rob
No, no, no!
You can receive any amount of money as a gift, and it is NOT TAXABLE. This is why tips are a special category of income. You might think a tip is a "gift" to your server, but the IRS says it's a tip, not a gift, and thus taxable. There used to be these little cards that you could leave on top of your tip that said "This money is a gift, and not a tip". But I don't think they work :)
When you are the one doing the giving, then YOU are the one who has to pay a "gift tax", unless it's under the annual exclusion which is (this year) $12,000 per person you gift. Anything over the annual exclusion goes into the "lifetime estate exclusion" bucket -- so if you pass your estate on to someone after you die, they get to pay taxes on it if the amount of the estate is (this year) $2,000,000 MINUS the lifetime estate exclusion.
WTF does this all mean? These guys can take in $20k and give it to two people without anyone having to pay any taxes at any time. Which is why you were wrong.
If, on the other hand, he gives the full $20k to one person, then $8k is above the exclusion, which means his eventual estate inheritor can now only inherit $1,992,000 tax-free. So he probably still doesn't have to worry, but he shouldn't make this a habit.
I'm not an accountant, but I play one on the Internet!
--Rob
Here are my prognostications.
It'll most likely be pretty good. Apple does hardware well, and they'd be goofs not to look at this.
I think smartphones have been around long enough for manufacturers to learn their lessons. No dropping.
Yes, it will disintegrate. Lots of phones, PDAs, and smartphones do. It's almost unavoidable (Newtons notwithstanding).
Not clueful at all. Sales and tech support never is. Go to Apple for that stuff.
No. "Random access voicemail" is not new -- I've been working on a similar desktop-based "random-access voicemail" app for a large telco for the past four years. It is very, very, very difficult to have voicemails disappear using a random-access voicemail system. Think email, with the additional security of a telco-based voicemail system.
Like plastic. Expect the screen to need cleaning very frequently because of skin oils. I'm actually glad they decided not to use a stylus. My favorite apps tends to make me use the same button over and over again, and next thing you know, it's several months later and you've got little dots of haze on your screen where the stylus kept banging.
Yes, but not in your car. Never in your car.
Under ordinary use, yes. See stylus point above. If you drop it, all bets are off. Also, like the iPod, you can't put your keys into the same pocket as the device. Use a sleeve or a cover. Come June, expect to see the "b-b-b-but it scratches so easily!" whines.
Good point, I have no guess.
Another good point, I have no guess.
I'd look forward to it, but I don't think I'm willing to pay Cingular's unlimited data fees.
--Rob
Countdown to complaints about scratches on the screen...
--Rob
Those diagrams would make a great Ikea assembly kit! :)
--Rob
Paypal is on the list -- as eBay, since eBay owns Paypal.
--Rob
There, I fixed your factual error for you.
--Rob
Ah, but they don't look stupid. They look fabulous!
--Rob