Living and working in PA, I've never paid sales tax for a thing I've bought over the internet as long as it was purchased OUTSIDE of PA. Anything that I bought inside PA is tax-free because it's interstate commerce as opposed to intrastate commerce. The company I worked for until just recently was very adamant about purcashing things out of state, espically large computer items, becuase of the tax savings. I think that it'd be prudent to ask another tax auditor or lawyer.
(BTW: For anyone getting engaged or married, have the jewelry store ship the ring to an address out of state. You'll save $$$ by avoiding PA State tax. I did this and it works great!)
The United States is not a Democracy. It has never claimed to be one nor would any right-minded person want a full democracy, espically given the completely uninformed nature of the citizens of this country. The United States is a representative republic. Meaning a Congress/Parliment enacts the legislation with the supposed support of his/her constituants. Obviously this doesn't happen as well as we'd like, but what's a better alternative? Socialism? Communism? Those have proven to be dismal failures. If we had a direct democracy, espically a "Digital Democracy", can you imagine the crap that would get enacted by people who's political awareness is only slightly higher than my pet fish's? Every popular-idea-of-the-moment would get enacted and then repealed 3 days later after everyone realized it was crazy. With such a messed up system, can you imagine how long the US would last as a country? Maybe a day. I agree that politicians should disclose more information about their plans and that the Internet is going to be an equalizing force in the flow and dissemination of information, but seriously people - politics has been the same since the dawn of time. It is YOUR responsibilty to make sure you're informed as best you can be, to actually go and vote and to call up your Congressman(woman) or Senator and make sure your views on their actions are known. You have to admit that a lot of people in office are probably relatively qualified to be there. Whether or not you agree with their politics or how they do things most are relatively decent people. I'm sure that sounds naieve to some people, but there are a lot more good people in politics than bad. But don't give the uninformed masses a direct voice. Chaos would insue and we'd be longing to a return to our type of government as it is now.
I built a Beowulf-style cluster this past semester in college for independent study. One of the biggest hurdles we had was picking out a message passing interface such as MPI or PVM. Configurining across multiple platforms was then even worse (we had a mixture of old Intels, SunSparcs and IBM RS/6000's). What do you see in the future for these interfaces in terms of setup and usage and will cross-platform clusters become easier to install and configure in the future?
With the large division between the standard HTML and the HTML tags that broswers like IE5 and Netscape will use and other division such as the fragmentation of the XML development base, what can Internet community users, SysAdmins and other industry users do to promote a unified standards base for platforms such as HTML and XML. I know that the old "Don't use IE5 becuase of..." stuff simply isn't going to work in the real world. What I'm looking for is a real, meaningful way to unite users and developers to conform to true standard.
I'd be interested in seeing Slashdot get a good patent/copyright lawyer in here in their pseudo-interview mode. Is that possible? Does anyone out there know someone who'd be a good and legitimate (i.e. law professor) resource that/. readers can ask FSF and GNU licensing issues?
I agree that a good book is nice to curl up with, but I am also interested in the portable ebook. And when I say and ebook I mean a flat-panel screen that is text w/ illustrations and two buttons with forward and backward. okay, maybe a bookmark and page# jump. I DO NOT (Microsoft take note) want a eBook that will also check my mail, allow me to store files, word process and everything else. I like books to get away from technology for awhile. I like to sit down with one of my books and read and not answer the phone or check e-mail or read/. It's relaxing for someone who deals with computers 10 hours a day for work + my after-work "fun". There's going to be a mixture of both in the future, with real books becoming a "status" symbol (i.e. Star Trek people w/ books). But there's also books that I'd like to read in either a loan form like a digital library I forsee a day where publishing for profit becomes a thing of the past and all books are accessable by all people everywhere. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for writers making a living and books are the one thing in this world that I don't think are seriously overpriced. However there's going to be a redefinition of how works are bought, sold, loaned and transferred. And I'm not sure that BN has the right one.
I don't think that the underlying issue here is who own the property. The issue at stake is who will control and at what amount will a person or corporation benefit from the publication/use/disbursement of an idea or intellectual property (hereinafter IP). The problem is that corporations, such a record labels, are looking at their royalty fees as their "cash cow". They are simply unwilling to look outside their own current system for revenue possibilities. As a counter example, let's look at television. Not the TV shows themselves but the actual broadcasting and formatting of a TV signal. Who owns a TV signal? Who controls the TV signal? Who utilizies the carrier wave space of the TV signal? Answers: EVERYONE. TV signals are an open medium (more or less). You don't see any company upset because of their lost revenue becuase everyone is broadcasting on THEIR protected TV carrier wave. Look at the explosion of TV. In 50+ years is has gone from a small novelty to one of the most imporant vehicles of entertainment and information in the average household. But your mainstream argument for IP protection would say "Well now, revenue would drop, artists would starve..." etc. However how many millions upon millions of dollars of revenue do the content providers of TV bring in due to all sorts of revenue streams? Do you see anyone in the TV arena upset becuase someone taped the last Pittsburgh Steelers game or the last eipsode of the X-files? Obviously I'm not referring to taping them for replying at a profit or anything illegal such as that. But how many people do you know of that are taking their MP3s and usings them for private use? Just about everyone! No repectable DJ wants to use illegal MP3s; his business reputation is on the line! Not to mention his legality as a DJ. So why can't traditional record label companys redefine their business revenue plans to profit off music the way that TV does? Advertising, premium content, etc.. There are plenty of revenue models. TV uses an open medium/distribution channel to turn a huge profit. The more people that see the shows means more exposure to advertising which means more revenue for them. They're not trying to profit off the medium or content. Corporations need to be aware of the successes of such mediums or they might just realize that their revenue model is going to go the way of disco.
Mozilla M13 works withs proxy servers, something it wouldn't seem to do for me before this release. I immediately gave it the nastiest test I could think of -- the web interface for MS Exchange. Is runs the pages better than IE5! NICE job Team Mozilla!
I ran into this early on at work. I thought it was just a goofy install and I didn't think any more about it. I discvoered that the AOL Dial-Up Adapter is what messes it up. And if you remove it from the Network control panel, AOL puts it right back in when you run the program. Here's all you have to do: Go into the SYSTEM control panel, open the Device Manager, choose properties for the AOL Dial-Up Adapter and click "Disable in this hardware profile". AOL can't figure that one out. Then you can have people dial into your LAN.
In light of Hawking's interview recently, what do you think about mankind breaking the speed of light barrier? I know that current scientific theory (ala e=mc^2) states that it is impossible, but do you think that technology will be developed to circumvent this theory? Or at least create other means of moving, like wormholes or the like?
What is your organization doing about various congressional legislation that is attempting to legislate away our pricacy. Specifically regarding the plan to make all encryption software makers include a backdoor key that the FBI would hold in escrow to monitor criminals and the plan to "standardize" network communications so that the FBI/CIA/NSA can monitor "traffic patterns" that could suggest a "cyber-attack"? These are, in my opinion, the biggest threat to personal privacy ever.
Why is the computer/internet community so insistent on having one OS, or proving what OS is "better". I think that obviously each OS has its strengths and weaknesses. Linux and BSD are both workstation and server platforms that are excellent performers in a wide variety of applications. Windows 9x is a perfect consumer OS (at this time) becuase it doesn't require hardly any know-how to use. Windows NT also has strengths as a server due to its wide application base and ease of use. Novell has a large following in the large corporation. Personally, I think already having seen what happens to innovation and interestwhen "the best OS" is taken to the extreme. A development in the Linux or BSD community will spur Microsoft or Novell to act and vise-versa. People will preach about "write once, run anywhere" but how will that realistically work? There will always be a proprietary OS that runs its own thing. We should concentrate on the betterment of the OS that we use. I use Windows NT and Linux about 75% and 25% respectively, but I also work hard to ensure that I'm doing the best, most productive work for both OSes. I hope that Microsoft keeps thriving. It creates healthy concentration and focuses the attention other OS developers. In short, as Adam Smith proved in economics hundreds of years, competition will bring out the best. We don't need a "one best" solution for anything because more often than not, it WON'T be the best.
Slashdot Mirror
(BTW: For anyone getting engaged or married, have the jewelry store ship the ring to an address out of state. You'll save $$$ by avoiding PA State tax. I did this and it works great!)
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."
I built a Beowulf-style cluster this past semester in college for independent study. One of the biggest hurdles we had was picking out a message passing interface such as MPI or PVM. Configurining across multiple platforms was then even worse (we had a mixture of old Intels, SunSparcs and IBM RS/6000's). What do you see in the future for these interfaces in terms of setup and usage and will cross-platform clusters become easier to install and configure in the future?
With the large division between the standard HTML and the HTML tags that broswers like IE5 and Netscape will use and other division such as the fragmentation of the XML development base, what can Internet community users, SysAdmins and other industry users do to promote a unified standards base for platforms such as HTML and XML. I know that the old "Don't use IE5 becuase of..." stuff simply isn't going to work in the real world. What I'm looking for is a real, meaningful way to unite users and developers to conform to true standard.
I'd be interested in seeing Slashdot get a good patent/copyright lawyer in here in their pseudo-interview mode. Is that possible? Does anyone out there know someone who'd be a good and legitimate (i.e. law professor) resource that /. readers can ask FSF and GNU licensing issues?
I agree that a good book is nice to curl up with, but I am also interested in the portable ebook. And when I say and ebook I mean a flat-panel screen that is text w/ illustrations and two buttons with forward and backward. okay, maybe a bookmark and page# jump. I DO NOT (Microsoft take note) want a eBook that will also check my mail, allow me to store files, word process and everything else. I like books to get away from technology for awhile. I like to sit down with one of my books and read and not answer the phone or check e-mail or read /. It's relaxing for someone who deals with computers 10 hours a day for work + my after-work "fun". There's going to be a mixture of both in the future, with real books becoming a "status" symbol (i.e. Star Trek people w/ books). But there's also books that I'd like to read in either a loan form like a digital library I forsee a day where publishing for profit becomes a thing of the past and all books are accessable by all people everywhere. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for writers making a living and books are the one thing in this world that I don't think are seriously overpriced. However there's going to be a redefinition of how works are bought, sold, loaned and transferred. And I'm not sure that BN has the right one.
I don't think that the underlying issue here is who own the property. The issue at stake is who will control and at what amount will a person or corporation benefit from the publication/use/disbursement of an idea or intellectual property (hereinafter IP). The problem is that corporations, such a record labels, are looking at their royalty fees as their "cash cow". They are simply unwilling to look outside their own current system for revenue possibilities. As a counter example, let's look at television. Not the TV shows themselves but the actual broadcasting and formatting of a TV signal. Who owns a TV signal? Who controls the TV signal? Who utilizies the carrier wave space of the TV signal? Answers: EVERYONE. TV signals are an open medium (more or less). You don't see any company upset because of their lost revenue becuase everyone is broadcasting on THEIR protected TV carrier wave. Look at the explosion of TV. In 50+ years is has gone from a small novelty to one of the most imporant vehicles of entertainment and information in the average household. But your mainstream argument for IP protection would say "Well now, revenue would drop, artists would starve..." etc. However how many millions upon millions of dollars of revenue do the content providers of TV bring in due to all sorts of revenue streams? Do you see anyone in the TV arena upset becuase someone taped the last Pittsburgh Steelers game or the last eipsode of the X-files? Obviously I'm not referring to taping them for replying at a profit or anything illegal such as that. But how many people do you know of that are taking their MP3s and usings them for private use? Just about everyone! No repectable DJ wants to use illegal MP3s; his business reputation is on the line! Not to mention his legality as a DJ. So why can't traditional record label companys redefine their business revenue plans to profit off music the way that TV does? Advertising, premium content, etc.. There are plenty of revenue models. TV uses an open medium/distribution channel to turn a huge profit. The more people that see the shows means more exposure to advertising which means more revenue for them. They're not trying to profit off the medium or content. Corporations need to be aware of the successes of such mediums or they might just realize that their revenue model is going to go the way of disco.
I can't say I'm having the same problems. I'm running behind an HTTP-only proxy on Win2000 and it's humming along.
Mozilla M13 works withs proxy servers, something it wouldn't seem to do for me before this release. I immediately gave it the nastiest test I could think of -- the web interface for MS Exchange. Is runs the pages better than IE5! NICE job Team Mozilla!
I ran into this early on at work. I thought it was just a goofy install and I didn't think any more about it. I discvoered that the AOL Dial-Up Adapter is what messes it up. And if you remove it from the Network control panel, AOL puts it right back in when you run the program. Here's all you have to do: Go into the SYSTEM control panel, open the Device Manager, choose properties for the AOL Dial-Up Adapter and click "Disable in this hardware profile". AOL can't figure that one out. Then you can have people dial into your LAN.
In light of Hawking's interview recently, what do you think about mankind breaking the speed of light barrier? I know that current scientific theory (ala e=mc^2) states that it is impossible, but do you think that technology will be developed to circumvent this theory? Or at least create other means of moving, like wormholes or the like?
What is your organization doing about various congressional legislation that is attempting to legislate away our pricacy. Specifically regarding the plan to make all encryption software makers include a backdoor key that the FBI would hold in escrow to monitor criminals and the plan to "standardize" network communications so that the FBI/CIA/NSA can monitor "traffic patterns" that could suggest a "cyber-attack"? These are, in my opinion, the biggest threat to personal privacy ever.
Why is the computer/internet community so insistent on having one OS, or proving what OS is "better". I think that obviously each OS has its strengths and weaknesses. Linux and BSD are both workstation and server platforms that are excellent performers in a wide variety of applications. Windows 9x is a perfect consumer OS (at this time) becuase it doesn't require hardly any know-how to use. Windows NT also has strengths as a server due to its wide application base and ease of use. Novell has a large following in the large corporation. Personally, I think already having seen what happens to innovation and interestwhen "the best OS" is taken to the extreme. A development in the Linux or BSD community will spur Microsoft or Novell to act and vise-versa. People will preach about "write once, run anywhere" but how will that realistically work? There will always be a proprietary OS that runs its own thing. We should concentrate on the betterment of the OS that we use. I use Windows NT and Linux about 75% and 25% respectively, but I also work hard to ensure that I'm doing the best, most productive work for both OSes. I hope that Microsoft keeps thriving. It creates healthy concentration and focuses the attention other OS developers. In short, as Adam Smith proved in economics hundreds of years, competition will bring out the best. We don't need a "one best" solution for anything because more often than not, it WON'T be the best.