And I have yet to report anything on that line. Not that I feel I am trying to rip off the state, but having at one time worked for a mail order company, who often did *NOT* have to charge sales tax on out-state purchasers.
I do not see how ordering something from a company who is based soley out of, say, CA, is any different than if I do it via mail order, or over the phone ordering.
I can see paying sales tax if I order from a company like Crucial memory, who most likely has offices in Michigan. The line on a state return though, just smacks of "you didn't spend all your money in-state, but we're going to pretend you did." Does that mean the next step will be to make people pay their state sales tax on items bought outside the state?
Will their be border crossings erected between Michigan and Ohio, and you'll have to declare what you purchased in Ohio, and pay the Michigan sales tax on it?
Makes travel even less of a hassle for everyone, as the "driver" doesn't have to do much of anything until they get near the destination, resulting in lower stress for all concerned.
One hopes that this idea might "get off the ground." I for one would love to finally have the flying cars we were all promised we'd be riding in by the 1990s' Although I doubt this thing would be able to get past FAA regs, much less be cleared to allow people to have one in their garage, to take out in the morning, and zoom off to work, vacation, or whatever...
I recall seeing some years back in Air & Space mag, an article on something very similar to this. Either that, or they got the name wrong, as they referred to it as "Project Orion" Whic I know is the "set nukes off under your butt and get blasted into orbit."
Anyway, The interesting factoid in the A&S article was that the nuclear engine was mostly ceramic, and built buy the Coors ceramic company in Colorado. Coors gave up the ceramics buss later, and went into beer... One problem was the engine "spewed" fissionable material out the back end. One plan was to have it fly around, after dropping is payload of A-Bombs, over enemy croplands...
Think the US government would send in the Marines to capture the head of the terrorist orginization? Just imagine the look on the face of the secretary to the president of the RIAA when the Marines bust through the front door?
And yes, I do support our military (USA), and my younger brother is a jarhead about to go *back* to Iraq.
Jason A.
Yeah, my wife and I were going to take a day off work to go to the marathon. I even had turned in my request for the time off, and got it approved. The day *after* the tickets went on sale I had a service call out by the local theatre showing the marathon. Stopped in on my way back to the office to pick up the tickets. Find out they had sold out in 45 minutes the day they went on sale. I kept the day off, my wife is going to go in to work. I'm going to park on the couch and throw in the DVD Special Editions of the first two movies. At least I have one advantage, which is I can pause the movie for bathroom breaks and munchie runs...:)
Nope. I've got the first Aliens vs Predator comic from Dark Horse, or at least an early one. The Preds had (have?) a captive (and not happy about it) queen, which they use to produce facehuggers to seed on planets to hunt the resulting drones. Problem starts when the queen Alien finds a way to "spoof" the equipment that was taking and destroying facehuggers that could produce another queen. Maybe the system was running MS Windows / Predator edition (obligatory anti-MS spot)
I'm hanging onto my old HP28S Scientific. Sure, they TIs of the
time (late 80s) had bigger screens, but the HP seemed to me to be the
cream of the crop. Plus someone I knew had one.
It's a pain trying to find N cell batteries for anything less than
about $5-6 / pair, and it uses 3 of them. Which means I either
end up with one battery that sits around and loses charge, or I buy 3
packs, and pray the 3 in the freezer don't lose charge, or disappear...
I've used that thing for everything from classes in college to a horse
race betting system. Managed to set the top end of the curve on
one final exam in college, open book with a calculator (structural
steel course) Lost 2 lousy points because I went a few too many
places past the decimal... I think the prof just didn't want to
give a 100% to the same person who couldn't hand any work in on
time.....
I've currently got 3 fully working IBM Ms. My wife uses one, one on my PC, and one currently hiding under the desk not in use. Just for kicks, I even removed the plain green LEDs on hers and mine, and swapped in colored (Blue-Red-Blue on hers, and Red-Blue-Red on mine) Even broke out a can of Krylon Fusion in black for mine (pain getting the 4 hex heads out though) I've got the detachable cable on 2 of them. The one on my system was still new in box when I bought a used IBM 300PL (PIII533) from where I work ($200 for PC, 17" monitor, keyboard, etc)
Jason A.
Personal responsibility has gone away. Why? Because it requires people to take responsibility for their own actions, which is much harder than blaming someone else. "It wasn't *my* fault your Honor that I killed those people! It was the evil, violent video games/comic books/role playing games that made me do it!" Those people left who take personal responisbility for their own actions are fast becoming a minority of the population. It's easier for parents to not take responsiblity for their kids, and let the TV/game console raise them, than blame the aforementioned when the kids get in trouble.
Also, people have come to realise that in our litiginous happy country, they can make a lot of money by blaming someone else for their problems. Hmmm, maybe I can sue Midway/Bally/other arcade machine manufacturers for my flunking out of college, instead of blaming myself for parking in front of the things and feeding in quarters!
Jason A.
He writes military sci-fi. March Upcountry, March to the Sea, and March to the Stars are good. The Legacy of the Alldenta series is good: A Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front, When the Devil Dances, and Hells Faire. If you like Sluggy Freelance, the Hells Faire book has references aplenty. If you pick up Hells Faire, it has a CD-ROM with the entire series, in several formats (great if you have a Palm or equiv)
For a wacked out mind f**k, The Illuminatis Trilogy by Robert Shay & Robert Anton Wilson. Way weird, and you can currently get it for about $20 on Amazon.
I'd also agree with everyone who suggested the Honor Harrington books.
Jason A.
Would be samples of games for various systems. If they can get / keep the price down low enough (say under $5), this might work. See a new game for you PS2/XBox/GameCube/PC, but aren't sure you'll enjoy it enough to warrant dropping $40+? By the trial disk. You now have 48hrs to try the game. Probably wouldn't work as well / at all for the PC, as all I need to do is copy the disk, and then find a no-CD crack for it, and I never need to buy it, but might work for the consoles.
However, for movies? No way. I thought DivX (the Circuit City one) blew chunks, and am glad it died a (fairly) quick death. Unless you either sell me these disks for under $2, OR give me a VERY large discount AT THE REGISTER when I buy a non-expiring copy of the same movie, I would not buy ANYTHING in this format. As I said, NO mail-in rebate crap, as I would not want to wait 3-4 months for a rebate.
Jason A.
Best keyboard I've ever owned is an older IBM keyboard. The nice older one with the wider key spacing that feels like an IBM Selectrict typewriter. I've got two of these, and they've taken more abuse than I can think of. Both work perfectly, despite having cats walk on them, lie on them, be abused by me (frustration has been worked out on these keyboards) I picked up both of them at computer shows as used keyboards, and paid less than $10 each time. Got a Dell keyboard, from before Dell went to black, and it quit working a few weeks after I got it. It was also bought used at a show, paid I think $5 for it....
Slashdot Mirror
And I have yet to report anything on that line. Not that I feel I am trying to rip off the state, but having at one time worked for a mail order company, who often did *NOT* have to charge sales tax on out-state purchasers.
I do not see how ordering something from a company who is based soley out of, say, CA, is any different than if I do it via mail order, or over the phone ordering.
I can see paying sales tax if I order from a company like Crucial memory, who most likely has offices in Michigan. The line on a state return though, just smacks of "you didn't spend all your money in-state, but we're going to pretend you did." Does that mean the next step will be to make people pay their state sales tax on items bought outside the state?
Will their be border crossings erected between Michigan and Ohio, and you'll have to declare what you purchased in Ohio, and pay the Michigan sales tax on it?
Sheesh.
Jason A.
I could deal with that....
Makes travel even less of a hassle for everyone, as the "driver" doesn't have to do much of anything until they get near the destination, resulting in lower stress for all concerned.
Jason A
One hopes that this idea might "get off the ground." I for one would love to finally have the flying cars we were all promised we'd be riding in by the 1990s' Although I doubt this thing would be able to get past FAA regs, much less be cleared to allow people to have one in their garage, to take out in the morning, and zoom off to work, vacation, or whatever...
Jason A.
Right, I knew *what* Orion was, my point was the article I read referred to Pluto as Orion....
IIRC.
Jason A.
I recall seeing some years back in Air & Space mag, an article on something very similar to this. Either that, or they got the name wrong, as they referred to it as "Project Orion" Whic I know is the "set nukes off under your butt and get blasted into orbit."
Anyway, The interesting factoid in the A&S article was that the nuclear engine was mostly ceramic, and built buy the Coors ceramic company in Colorado. Coors gave up the ceramics buss later, and went into beer... One problem was the engine "spewed" fissionable material out the back end. One plan was to have it fly around, after dropping is payload of A-Bombs, over enemy croplands...
Jason A.
Think the US government would send in the Marines to capture the head of the terrorist orginization? Just imagine the look on the face of the secretary to the president of the RIAA when the Marines bust through the front door? And yes, I do support our military (USA), and my younger brother is a jarhead about to go *back* to Iraq. Jason A.
No, we chew them.....
Yeah, my wife and I were going to take a day off work to go to the marathon. I even had turned in my request for the time off, and got it approved. The day *after* the tickets went on sale I had a service call out by the local theatre showing the marathon. Stopped in on my way back to the office to pick up the tickets. Find out they had sold out in 45 minutes the day they went on sale. I kept the day off, my wife is going to go in to work. I'm going to park on the couch and throw in the DVD Special Editions of the first two movies. At least I have one advantage, which is I can pause the movie for bathroom breaks and munchie runs... :)
Jason A.
Nope. I've got the first Aliens vs Predator comic from Dark Horse, or at least an early one. The Preds had (have?) a captive (and not happy about it) queen, which they use to produce facehuggers to seed on planets to hunt the resulting drones. Problem starts when the queen Alien finds a way to "spoof" the equipment that was taking and destroying facehuggers that could produce another queen. Maybe the system was running MS Windows / Predator edition (obligatory anti-MS spot)
Jason A.
I'm hanging onto my old HP28S Scientific. Sure, they TIs of the time (late 80s) had bigger screens, but the HP seemed to me to be the cream of the crop. Plus someone I knew had one.
It's a pain trying to find N cell batteries for anything less than about $5-6 / pair, and it uses 3 of them. Which means I either end up with one battery that sits around and loses charge, or I buy 3 packs, and pray the 3 in the freezer don't lose charge, or disappear...
I've used that thing for everything from classes in college to a horse race betting system. Managed to set the top end of the curve on one final exam in college, open book with a calculator (structural steel course) Lost 2 lousy points because I went a few too many places past the decimal... I think the prof just didn't want to give a 100% to the same person who couldn't hand any work in on time.....
Jason A.
I've currently got 3 fully working IBM Ms. My wife uses one, one on my PC, and one currently hiding under the desk not in use. Just for kicks, I even removed the plain green LEDs on hers and mine, and swapped in colored (Blue-Red-Blue on hers, and Red-Blue-Red on mine) Even broke out a can of Krylon Fusion in black for mine (pain getting the 4 hex heads out though) I've got the detachable cable on 2 of them. The one on my system was still new in box when I bought a used IBM 300PL (PIII533) from where I work ($200 for PC, 17" monitor, keyboard, etc) Jason A.
Personal responsibility has gone away. Why? Because it requires people to take responsibility for their own actions, which is much harder than blaming someone else. "It wasn't *my* fault your Honor that I killed those people! It was the evil, violent video games/comic books/role playing games that made me do it!" Those people left who take personal responisbility for their own actions are fast becoming a minority of the population. It's easier for parents to not take responsiblity for their kids, and let the TV/game console raise them, than blame the aforementioned when the kids get in trouble. Also, people have come to realise that in our litiginous happy country, they can make a lot of money by blaming someone else for their problems. Hmmm, maybe I can sue Midway/Bally/other arcade machine manufacturers for my flunking out of college, instead of blaming myself for parking in front of the things and feeding in quarters! Jason A.
He writes military sci-fi. March Upcountry, March to the Sea, and March to the Stars are good. The Legacy of the Alldenta series is good: A Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front, When the Devil Dances, and Hells Faire. If you like Sluggy Freelance, the Hells Faire book has references aplenty. If you pick up Hells Faire, it has a CD-ROM with the entire series, in several formats (great if you have a Palm or equiv) For a wacked out mind f**k, The Illuminatis Trilogy by Robert Shay & Robert Anton Wilson. Way weird, and you can currently get it for about $20 on Amazon. I'd also agree with everyone who suggested the Honor Harrington books. Jason A.
Would be samples of games for various systems. If they can get / keep the price down low enough (say under $5), this might work. See a new game for you PS2/XBox/GameCube/PC, but aren't sure you'll enjoy it enough to warrant dropping $40+? By the trial disk. You now have 48hrs to try the game. Probably wouldn't work as well / at all for the PC, as all I need to do is copy the disk, and then find a no-CD crack for it, and I never need to buy it, but might work for the consoles. However, for movies? No way. I thought DivX (the Circuit City one) blew chunks, and am glad it died a (fairly) quick death. Unless you either sell me these disks for under $2, OR give me a VERY large discount AT THE REGISTER when I buy a non-expiring copy of the same movie, I would not buy ANYTHING in this format. As I said, NO mail-in rebate crap, as I would not want to wait 3-4 months for a rebate. Jason A.
And only after two posts!!!
You mean Mechwarrior: Dork Ages...... And yes, I am a B-Tech fan (Classic Tech, not Clicky Tech)
Best keyboard I've ever owned is an older IBM keyboard. The nice older one with the wider key spacing that feels like an IBM Selectrict typewriter. I've got two of these, and they've taken more abuse than I can think of. Both work perfectly, despite having cats walk on them, lie on them, be abused by me (frustration has been worked out on these keyboards) I picked up both of them at computer shows as used keyboards, and paid less than $10 each time. Got a Dell keyboard, from before Dell went to black, and it quit working a few weeks after I got it. It was also bought used at a show, paid I think $5 for it....
Jason A.