In general flat taxes get killed because they are reported as "a tax reduction for the rich and tax increase for the poor" by the media. As you say, the stable rate would be a great peace of mind for people.
We, in the US, need to start simplifing and pruning government.
On the slightly darkside, I wonder if the accounting lobby is spending money to influence this. I do remeber a commercial that advertised tax preperation based on the fact the tax code is so hard, you need a professional to get it right or you will get audited.
until recently I was in the "high" income bracket as defined by the Democrats (>$100k) and I got a huge chunch of my check taken out. My friend and his wife are still in that bracket and are getting killed by taxes. The myth of the upper class paying zero taxes is just a political argument to generate hate so Democrats can get elected.
"Progressive" taxes aren't. This class warfare stuff is really starting to get to me. All it does is get in the way of building a tax system that doesn't require me to hire / be an accountant.
We need a flat tax with a high minimum deductable (to keep all the kids / summer jobs out of the paperwork). Perhaps a $20k deductible with a flat percentage after that. Treat everyone as an individual (no lumping spouse in with you / marriage penalty). No deductible for children or interest on homes (we want people to save after all). Do not tax interest on savings (need more money for people to borrow).
"Programming Ruby" (aka "The Pickaxe Book") by David Thomas and Andrew Hunt
Addison-Wesley Oct 2000 ISBN: 0201710897 is available online, download, or purchase.
If you like the online edition, buy the book so the authors can do a second edition. I am sure this goes the same for Mr. Perens' new line of books.
I give them credit for getting it to run, but they need that native look to succeed.
Macintosh owners are rebelous enough to spurn Windows, but we will use Office if it is the best available. Right now, it is the best suite. It looks right, works, and doesn't seem to damage anything.
X11 apps will not be a mainstream item on OS X. Even a lot of java apps are painfull (I love jEdit but it is a pain). We want / need our menu at the top of the screen (not on some window). Toolbars are OK on windows, but I better be able to customize it (small icons, large icons, text under icons, what icons appear). The keycombinations better act like every other app. The fonts should not make my eyes water.
I really hope OpenOffice learns enough from their test builds of native stuff to restructure their program to provide native look, feel, and services for each of their intended platforms (Linux, BSD, Solaris, OS X, and Windows). Competition is good.
Microsoft: one of the best hardware companies out there
Speaking from experience, I always try to hire physics, engineering or philosophy graduates for programming positions. CS graduates are worse than useless because before you can deploy them on a project you have to make them unlearn all the crap their professors (who haven't been in industry for 25 years) have taught them.
A friend of mine was hired at EDS under the same theory. He turned out to be the right kind of person to be a programmer.
but...
I do believe this is a myth. There are good CompSci students and bad CompSci students. People who have a passion for programming generally go into a field dealing with programming and not all CompSci programs are worthless. Most of the people in the field who are worthless have never done a program for themselves in their entire life. I can name very view (three I have the fortune to work with currently) that have successfully made the conversion from non-programmer to programmer.
I remember an interview question a friend of mine used to use: "What was the last program you wrote that was not for work or school?"
If they had any answer at all, the interview continued. If not, he wrapped it up as quickly as possible while still being polite.
It launches faster (2 bounces as opposed to about 8 for Chimera)
You gotta love the fact that almost all of us mac users now use "bounce" as a unit of time measurement. It just seems weird talking to some Unix people, who have migrated to the Mac, speaking of bounce numbers.
I did start buying a lot more albums when I could burn my own cds. That way those two good songs could be combined with the other albulms with two good songs. No need to carry 50 CDs in the car when I could carry 10 good ones. The iPod makes this a bigger win for me. Music became an impulse buy with the advent of CD-R.
The problem I have is paying for unused / unusable storage space. I wouldn't have minded buying the two singles for a couple of bucks. I buy books online but I still use a brick and mortar bookstore. Stop producing whole albums. Do a good song, release, do another. Use better than CD Quality (SACD quality). Acknowledge that I will rip it for traveling and burn it for compilations for my home. Understand the more convient it is (and sometimes stores are better than downloading) the more I will buy.
Music is becoming less of an impulse buy everyday. I look at an album that has a couple of good songs and have to go check online if it is copyprotected or not. If it is, no buy, can't risk the computer now can I.
I think you hit one of the big problems on the head. If no school teaches music, then why would you expect people to properly appreciate good musicianship. Look at the industry most of us are in, some of the worst programming is appreciated because marketing is king.
The high school I graduated from only kept its band program another two years after I left. It is sad schools ignore the fundamentals (the 3Rs) and music. You think they could do both and get rid of some of the drek.
Actually, I can get a T1 in some parts of ND cheaper than in Minnesota. North Dakota has a lot going for it if the state government would start attracting tech businesses.
North Dakota exports 70% of the electricity generated to other state. No Rolling Brown Outs. Cost of living is way low, and a good 3 bedroom apartment is in the $800 range for the two larger cities.
Yeah, snow sucks, but it has been an extemely mild winter. Also, stay on the east side of the state. Fargo and Grand Forks would be good places for businesses. Western ND would not be
As a long term strategy, it's in Apple's best interest to package software which will also run on Linux boxes.
Actually, it is in Apple's long term interest to have killer apps that people need / crave / really want that do not run on any other platform. This allows them to sell more Macintoshes.
If you can get ahold of the book "Apple Design: The Work of the Apple Industrial Design Group" which came out in 1997, there is a concept mac that has the beginnings of the new iMac.
Slashdot Mirror
We, in the US, need to start simplifing and pruning government.
On the slightly darkside, I wonder if the accounting lobby is spending money to influence this. I do remeber a commercial that advertised tax preperation based on the fact the tax code is so hard, you need a professional to get it right or you will get audited.
"Progressive" taxes aren't. This class warfare stuff is really starting to get to me. All it does is get in the way of building a tax system that doesn't require me to hire / be an accountant.
We need a flat tax with a high minimum deductable (to keep all the kids / summer jobs out of the paperwork). Perhaps a $20k deductible with a flat percentage after that. Treat everyone as an individual (no lumping spouse in with you / marriage penalty). No deductible for children or interest on homes (we want people to save after all). Do not tax interest on savings (need more money for people to borrow).
"Programming Ruby" (aka "The Pickaxe Book") by David Thomas and Andrew Hunt Addison-Wesley Oct 2000 ISBN: 0201710897 is available online, download, or purchase.
If you like the online edition, buy the book so the authors can do a second edition. I am sure this goes the same for Mr. Perens' new line of books.
Macintosh owners are rebelous enough to spurn Windows, but we will use Office if it is the best available. Right now, it is the best suite. It looks right, works, and doesn't seem to damage anything.
X11 apps will not be a mainstream item on OS X. Even a lot of java apps are painfull (I love jEdit but it is a pain). We want / need our menu at the top of the screen (not on some window). Toolbars are OK on windows, but I better be able to customize it (small icons, large icons, text under icons, what icons appear). The keycombinations better act like every other app. The fonts should not make my eyes water.
I really hope OpenOffice learns enough from their test builds of native stuff to restructure their program to provide native look, feel, and services for each of their intended platforms (Linux, BSD, Solaris, OS X, and Windows). Competition is good.
Microsoft: one of the best hardware companies out there
A friend of mine was hired at EDS under the same theory. He turned out to be the right kind of person to be a programmer.
but...
I do believe this is a myth. There are good CompSci students and bad CompSci students. People who have a passion for programming generally go into a field dealing with programming and not all CompSci programs are worthless. Most of the people in the field who are worthless have never done a program for themselves in their entire life. I can name very view (three I have the fortune to work with currently) that have successfully made the conversion from non-programmer to programmer.
I remember an interview question a friend of mine used to use:
"What was the last program you wrote that was not for work or school?"
If they had any answer at all, the interview continued. If not, he wrapped it up as quickly as possible while still being polite.
You gotta love the fact that almost all of us mac users now use "bounce" as a unit of time measurement. It just seems weird talking to some Unix people, who have migrated to the Mac, speaking of bounce numbers.
The problem I have is paying for unused / unusable storage space. I wouldn't have minded buying the two singles for a couple of bucks. I buy books online but I still use a brick and mortar bookstore. Stop producing whole albums. Do a good song, release, do another. Use better than CD Quality (SACD quality). Acknowledge that I will rip it for traveling and burn it for compilations for my home. Understand the more convient it is (and sometimes stores are better than downloading) the more I will buy.
Music is becoming less of an impulse buy everyday. I look at an album that has a couple of good songs and have to go check online if it is copyprotected or not. If it is, no buy, can't risk the computer now can I.
I buy FreeBSD / OpenBSD disks after all.
The high school I graduated from only kept its band program another two years after I left. It is sad schools ignore the fundamentals (the 3Rs) and music. You think they could do both and get rid of some of the drek.
North Dakota exports 70% of the electricity generated to other state. No Rolling Brown Outs. Cost of living is way low, and a good 3 bedroom apartment is in the $800 range for the two larger cities.
Yeah, snow sucks, but it has been an extemely mild winter. Also, stay on the east side of the state. Fargo and Grand Forks would be good places for businesses. Western ND would not be
Actually, it is in Apple's long term interest to have killer apps that people need / crave / really want that do not run on any other platform. This allows them to sell more Macintoshes.
If you can get ahold of the book "Apple Design: The Work of the Apple Industrial Design Group" which came out in 1997, there is a concept mac that has the beginnings of the new iMac.
they sell a paper copy. check your favorite book store for ordering.
> I still think that the ASF would have
> been better served by reusing (and
> improving) the NSPR than making their
> own.
I would imagine license was the issue.
From the NSPR website "When you contribute material to NSPR, you agree to allow your contribution to be licensed under the MPL or GPL."
APR uses Apache's own license which is less restrictive.