From what I recall (my brief visit to DOL found nothing except the forthcoming changes to the FLSA) is that you were exempt if you were:
Professional (engineer, programmer, etc)
I'm a non-exempt professional in a usually-exempt profession (CPA). Just being professional is not enough. It's one of the indicators that there's a *good chance* that you are exempt, but you still have to meet the other criteria. But companies get nailed for this all the time by making assumptions. Every place I've worked has been nailed on this. (But always before I was there.)
It's always been a benefit for me, because they've then had to be extra careful with how they treat their employees. When I've been exempt, I've had true autonomy to control my work hours and location. And when I've been non-exempt (like now) I've gotten compensated for the overtime I've worked.
The point is that the managers of the company were forcing non-exempt employees to work more time than they reported. It's ILLEGAL. Furthermore, IANAL, but I bet it qualifies as tax fraud as well.
Absolutely it is tax fraud. Payroll tax fraud. They didn't pay FICA or FIT on any of those unreported wages, and that'd be at least 30% of the gross value of the wages. That's one reason the government tends to come down very heavy on these kinds of things--it's costing them serious money.
Don't ever mess with payroll taxes, by the way. As a company, you can get away with not paying your bills, or not paying your employees, or even not paying the bank. But if you ever miss paying your payroll tax deposit, they will throw you under the jail.
How you can be a non-exempt programmer is beyond me, but that's a different issue.
There's a checklist on conditions that you have to meet to be exempt (which I don't remember all of off the top of my head), but the gist of it boils down to this: you can't be exempt unless you have control.
To be exempt you really have to be a manager (supervise other people) or have near-complete control over how and when you do your job. It is very difficult to *compell* overtime from an exempt employee--it may end up being necessary logistically to get the job done, but that is employee's decision, *not* the employer's. Special circumstances can over-ride this, of course, but if there are "special circumstances" a good percentage of the time, then those circumstances aren't really very special anymore, and the job has probably been mis-classified.
Turning down a request for information for no apparent reason worked so well when Congress asked him for the memo redefining torture, he must have figured he could do it again.
Hmmm. My impression was that the Japanese economy was better now than it has been for a long time. Not that I'm saying that it's good. Just that it seems better than it has been.
But even if it's been horrid for 10 years, and is still just as bad, why would that make game sales fall *now*? You'd think they'd be staying about the same, wouldn't you.
You're missing the point. Accounting procedures result in income being recorded when the gift certificate is sold. The liability of providing the service or product isn't realized until the item is sold. From an accounting standpoint, this can result in the books completely "going to shit" after a while if the outstanding, unclaimed liabilities aren't removed. Now surely there is a compromise with consumers. Lengthen this amount of time to something quite reasonable... 5 years perhaps.
Actually, proper accounting procedures are that you don't recognize the revenue from the gift certificate until it is *redeemed*. Until then it is Unearned Revenue, which is a liability. That's just a quibble though, cause I think that's what you meant.
If this goes through, I think the company would be able to make a good faith estimate as to Permanently Unredeemed Gift Certificates and recognize a percentage of old (say, 3yr+) Gift Certificates as income every year. While still retaining the records in case they ever *are* redeemed. (Kind of the opposite to how you do Bad Debts.)
I oppose the expensing of options because there is often no good way to value them, particularly in the case of a startup offering them in lieu of cash (which is often where they do the most good from the business's point of view, and where rules requiring them to be expensed are likely to hurt the business's viability the most).
This shouldn't provide any problems to a start-up at all. When you are in startup mode, the only people who are reading your financial statements are bankers and investors. Bankers and investors know that "Net Income" is the most over-rated of all numbers on a financial statement. The bankers and investors are looking at the Statement of Cash Flows.
Businesses fail because of lack of cash, not lack of income. The only companies this should hurt are big companies with lots of "mainstream" investors who don't know what they're doing.
he second definition of first degree murder is causing the death of another person while committing or attempting to commit another crime like sexual conduct with a minor, sexual assault, molestation of a child, various drug-related crimes, kidnapping, burglary, arson, robbery, escape from jail, child abuse, or unlawful flight from a pursuing law enforcement vehicle, or while fleeing from the scene where you committed any of these offenses.
The exact list of crimes on there varies from state to state.
Interestingly enough, in Washington state we're in the middle of a big brouhaha because one of the crimes that had been on the list was "assault," and the State Supreme Court recently ruled that silly. The reasoning was that it was impossible to commit murder without also committing assault, and so having assault automatically escalate the murder to 1st degree murder effectively eliminated the existence of 2nd degree murder.
It makes since, but the effect has been to overturn a whole bunch of murder convictions, which is causing quite a mess.
You're right. That basic plot could sell (and has--off the top of my head it reminds me a lot of the Deus Ex plot, and I'm sure it matches up with many others), but you couldn't put it in that context. You'd have to file the serial numbers off of it and set it in a futuristic/fantasy/mainstream setting to get it to sell.
But that's nothing new. One of the reasons that sf&f literature is so dynamic is that you're able to restated real-world problems in a way that don't make people immediately reject them.
If you liked 3 in Three, also check out Fool's Errand, which was made by the same person, Cliff Johnson. It is, bar none, the best puzzle game I have ever played.
Cliff is in the process of making a sequel to it as well, due out on Halloween.
The last time I flew (a month after 9-11) some kid (about 17) was trying to get on the air plane (domestic flight from Philly to LA). His ID was a High school ID and the flight attendents said "oh it's alright he is young."
Actually, in all seriousness, what kind of ID do you think he *should* have had? Assuming he didn't drive yet, there's no particular ID that a 17 yr old would even have.
I had to fly on 9/17/01, and my drivers license *expired* on 9/15. All the Dept of Licensing would give me was a crappy paper license without a picture. But it *was* an official document, so they had to accept it (I also had the cancelled, expired license with me, which probably helped.) But I was nervous as hell. (About getting through. Not about flying.)
At 40 hrs/week, thats 160 a month, you make 15 an hour. Thats at the higher salary. You can make as much holding a stop sign at a construction job. If you lived in California, after rent taxes and food, you might have 100 to spare for transportation. In other parts, you're still struggling to make ends meet.
To be fair, we don't know where he lives. There are still plenty of parts of the country where $15/hr *is* doing very well. (Like the rural south--or, hell, just about anywhere truly rural.) In the town I grew up in, you can still get a decent house for $50K, for instance, so you can imagine how low the cost of living is. Now, whether he has any job stability or income growth from there, well, that's another question entirely.
From experience, one can not have two different dialects of the same language and maintain seperation.
Actually this is untrue. People are very adept at code-switching, which is using the proper dialect at the proper time. The only time we tend to have problems is when we don't know the code to switch into (or don't quite understand what makes one appropriate over another).
Although, depending on what you mean by "pushed to speak form (the) heart," you might have a very good point. A very famous sociolinguist (whose name escapes me at the moment) would always ask his interview subjects to describe an incident where they almost died. Reliving the stress of that moment would often cause them to revert to their base dialect, which is what he was interested in analyzing. The amount of stress you have to put on someone to reliably get them to go into that dialect is pretty incredible, however.
While your point of view is definitely valid, it's also kind of beside the point of the post you were replying to. Here's the argument chain:
Article: PvP doesn't work in MMORPGs. People who engage in it are deranged.
Original Poster: This is wrong, because PvP works very well in Shadowbane. It has systems that allow PvP with very little griefing.
You: PvP is only fun in games that are designed for it. In other games, it ruins other people's fun.
So, even if what you said is true, it doesn't affect what the poster said, because Shadowbane was designed for PvP, in such a way so that it doesn't ruin anybody's fun. The player justice system in Shadowbane works *fabulously well*, and should be a model for any game that does want to implement PvP. (Of course, plenty of other things in SB are broken, but that's a different discussion.)
If I discover an employee embezzling from my company (which I have), I don't have to continue paying them until they are convicted a year later. That would be adding insult to injury.
I actually pay attention to my children and how they react to things, and I know that my oldest (8 at the time, 9 now) will have nightmares from horrific scenes like that for about a week. My youngest (5) doesn't seem to have problems with images, but is intensely affected by sounds. (For a while there he couldn't stand to be around music in a minor key because it was "too sad".)
Since I get all my news from the radio and newspaper (and oh, yeah, the internet), I don't have to worry about the images from real news. I can discuss the news with my oldest with no problems, as long as it is out of the context of the images.
I *don't* care about the breast. It wasn't even noticeable. I thought the rest of the halftime show was in poor taste, but that's not the issue.
I don't let my kids watch live sporting events without a remote control in my hand because of the inappropriate *commercials* they show. Primarily movie trailers and promos for upcoming TV shows. I personally object to the violence rather than the sex (though it's the combination of the two that is the worst). Many of the ads for slasher movies or cop shows IMO cross the line, but the one that pushed me over the edge was an ad for "24" (a show I *watch*) where someone was being tortured. You didn't see much, but with a lurid voice-over, a bit of blood, and plenty of screaming, you didn't need to. Why are they showing that at noon on a Sunday?
They can show anything they want. That's their right. But they'll lose audience from the people who don't want to watch that stuff.
Did you even read what I said? I was *not* bitching about the breast. I was bitching about ads like "Tonight on CSI--a mysterious woman is raped, shot, and put through a wood-chipper. Can the team put the pieces together before the killer strikes again!" complete with disturbing graphics being shown during a basketball game at 1 PM.
Of course they can do it. But it's stupid because it means that I'm probably not going to watch the game at all, or if I do, I'm going to change the channel during commercials so my 5 yr old doesn't see that stuff.
It's not a problem with the content itself, it's the timing of when they show it--sporting events should (IMHO) have PG-rated content being shown because they are watched by a lot of children.
You missed the point. The entire dance act was extremely sexual. Nobody would have complained if that's all it was. But a NIPPLE pops out and OH, LORDY!
Maybe I was the only one, but I was far more offended by the graphic nature of the dancing (and the crotch-grabbing) then I was by the brief flash of nipple that was so quick that I didn't even see it. And even worse to me are the movie trailers (and TV show promos) that they show during the commercials.
I'm not a prude, and I don't advocate censorship of these things, I just wish the networks would *think* about this a bit more. I love sports. My kids love sports. But I can't let them watch them on TV until they get a bit older, cause of this. And that's cutting down on their audience.
It's not a strategic-level game, but the various flavors of Combat Mission, which you can get over at battlefront.com might fit be something you enjoy. It's WW2 squad-level combat, with the different versions being different fronts of the war.
It's sort of turn-based. You give instructions to all of your units that are in-command (yes, it takes communication between units into account) and then it executes 10 seconds worth of time (which you can view from any vantage point that is in your area of control), and then you repeat. It is extremely historically accurate, and the most detailed *tactical* computer game I have ever seen. It has the feel of a miniatures game that has been translated over to computer, but done extremely well.
Most of their games also have Mac versions (unfortunately OS9 only -- and don't work in Classic). Their newest Combat Mission game is going to be OSX, but I can't remember if that's out yet.
It's worth mentioning that Europa Universalis II is also made on the same engine. It deals with a different time period (1400 - 1800), but has many of the same features, so if you like one, you'll probably like the other.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm a non-exempt professional in a usually-exempt profession (CPA). Just being professional is not enough. It's one of the indicators that there's a *good chance* that you are exempt, but you still have to meet the other criteria. But companies get nailed for this all the time by making assumptions. Every place I've worked has been nailed on this. (But always before I was there.)
It's always been a benefit for me, because they've then had to be extra careful with how they treat their employees. When I've been exempt, I've had true autonomy to control my work hours and location. And when I've been non-exempt (like now) I've gotten compensated for the overtime I've worked.
Absolutely it is tax fraud. Payroll tax fraud. They didn't pay FICA or FIT on any of those unreported wages, and that'd be at least 30% of the gross value of the wages. That's one reason the government tends to come down very heavy on these kinds of things--it's costing them serious money.
Don't ever mess with payroll taxes, by the way. As a company, you can get away with not paying your bills, or not paying your employees, or even not paying the bank. But if you ever miss paying your payroll tax deposit, they will throw you under the jail.
There's a checklist on conditions that you have to meet to be exempt (which I don't remember all of off the top of my head), but the gist of it boils down to this: you can't be exempt unless you have control.
To be exempt you really have to be a manager (supervise other people) or have near-complete control over how and when you do your job. It is very difficult to *compell* overtime from an exempt employee--it may end up being necessary logistically to get the job done, but that is employee's decision, *not* the employer's. Special circumstances can over-ride this, of course, but if there are "special circumstances" a good percentage of the time, then those circumstances aren't really very special anymore, and the job has probably been mis-classified.
But even if it's been horrid for 10 years, and is still just as bad, why would that make game sales fall *now*? You'd think they'd be staying about the same, wouldn't you.
Actually, proper accounting procedures are that you don't recognize the revenue from the gift certificate until it is *redeemed*. Until then it is Unearned Revenue, which is a liability. That's just a quibble though, cause I think that's what you meant.
If this goes through, I think the company would be able to make a good faith estimate as to Permanently Unredeemed Gift Certificates and recognize a percentage of old (say, 3yr+) Gift Certificates as income every year. While still retaining the records in case they ever *are* redeemed. (Kind of the opposite to how you do Bad Debts.)
This shouldn't provide any problems to a start-up at all. When you are in startup mode, the only people who are reading your financial statements are bankers and investors. Bankers and investors know that "Net Income" is the most over-rated of all numbers on a financial statement. The bankers and investors are looking at the Statement of Cash Flows.
Businesses fail because of lack of cash, not lack of income. The only companies this should hurt are big companies with lots of "mainstream" investors who don't know what they're doing.
The exact list of crimes on there varies from state to state.
Interestingly enough, in Washington state we're in the middle of a big brouhaha because one of the crimes that had been on the list was "assault," and the State Supreme Court recently ruled that silly. The reasoning was that it was impossible to commit murder without also committing assault, and so having assault automatically escalate the murder to 1st degree murder effectively eliminated the existence of 2nd degree murder.
It makes since, but the effect has been to overturn a whole bunch of murder convictions, which is causing quite a mess.
But that's nothing new. One of the reasons that sf&f literature is so dynamic is that you're able to restated real-world problems in a way that don't make people immediately reject them.
Cliff is in the process of making a sequel to it as well, due out on Halloween.
Actually, in all seriousness, what kind of ID do you think he *should* have had? Assuming he didn't drive yet, there's no particular ID that a 17 yr old would even have.
I had to fly on 9/17/01, and my drivers license *expired* on 9/15. All the Dept of Licensing would give me was a crappy paper license without a picture. But it *was* an official document, so they had to accept it (I also had the cancelled, expired license with me, which probably helped.) But I was nervous as hell. (About getting through. Not about flying.)
To be fair, we don't know where he lives. There are still plenty of parts of the country where $15/hr *is* doing very well. (Like the rural south--or, hell, just about anywhere truly rural.) In the town I grew up in, you can still get a decent house for $50K, for instance, so you can imagine how low the cost of living is. Now, whether he has any job stability or income growth from there, well, that's another question entirely.
Actually this is untrue. People are very adept at code-switching, which is using the proper dialect at the proper time. The only time we tend to have problems is when we don't know the code to switch into (or don't quite understand what makes one appropriate over another).
Although, depending on what you mean by "pushed to speak form (the) heart," you might have a very good point. A very famous sociolinguist (whose name escapes me at the moment) would always ask his interview subjects to describe an incident where they almost died. Reliving the stress of that moment would often cause them to revert to their base dialect, which is what he was interested in analyzing. The amount of stress you have to put on someone to reliably get them to go into that dialect is pretty incredible, however.
Article: PvP doesn't work in MMORPGs. People who engage in it are deranged.
Original Poster: This is wrong, because PvP works very well in Shadowbane. It has systems that allow PvP with very little griefing.
You: PvP is only fun in games that are designed for it. In other games, it ruins other people's fun.
So, even if what you said is true, it doesn't affect what the poster said, because Shadowbane was designed for PvP, in such a way so that it doesn't ruin anybody's fun. The player justice system in Shadowbane works *fabulously well*, and should be a model for any game that does want to implement PvP. (Of course, plenty of other things in SB are broken, but that's a different discussion.)
If I discover an employee embezzling from my company (which I have), I don't have to continue paying them until they are convicted a year later. That would be adding insult to injury.
(Of course, I don't think MS is supporting it anymore, either, but they only stopped in the last six months or so.)
In Britain they say "A pint of water is a pound and a quarter" cause they use "Imperial pints" that are 20 ounces.
But "A pint's a pound outside of Britain just doesn't have the same ring to it.
I actually pay attention to my children and how they react to things, and I know that my oldest (8 at the time, 9 now) will have nightmares from horrific scenes like that for about a week. My youngest (5) doesn't seem to have problems with images, but is intensely affected by sounds. (For a while there he couldn't stand to be around music in a minor key because it was "too sad".)
Since I get all my news from the radio and newspaper (and oh, yeah, the internet), I don't have to worry about the images from real news. I can discuss the news with my oldest with no problems, as long as it is out of the context of the images.
Perhaps your children are different?
I *don't* care about the breast. It wasn't even noticeable. I thought the rest of the halftime show was in poor taste, but that's not the issue.
I don't let my kids watch live sporting events without a remote control in my hand because of the inappropriate *commercials* they show. Primarily movie trailers and promos for upcoming TV shows. I personally object to the violence rather than the sex (though it's the combination of the two that is the worst). Many of the ads for slasher movies or cop shows IMO cross the line, but the one that pushed me over the edge was an ad for "24" (a show I *watch*) where someone was being tortured. You didn't see much, but with a lurid voice-over, a bit of blood, and plenty of screaming, you didn't need to. Why are they showing that at noon on a Sunday?
They can show anything they want. That's their right. But they'll lose audience from the people who don't want to watch that stuff.
Of course they can do it. But it's stupid because it means that I'm probably not going to watch the game at all, or if I do, I'm going to change the channel during commercials so my 5 yr old doesn't see that stuff.
It's not a problem with the content itself, it's the timing of when they show it--sporting events should (IMHO) have PG-rated content being shown because they are watched by a lot of children.
I'm not a prude, and I don't advocate censorship of these things, I just wish the networks would *think* about this a bit more. I love sports. My kids love sports. But I can't let them watch them on TV until they get a bit older, cause of this. And that's cutting down on their audience.
It's sort of turn-based. You give instructions to all of your units that are in-command (yes, it takes communication between units into account) and then it executes 10 seconds worth of time (which you can view from any vantage point that is in your area of control), and then you repeat. It is extremely historically accurate, and the most detailed *tactical* computer game I have ever seen. It has the feel of a miniatures game that has been translated over to computer, but done extremely well.
Most of their games also have Mac versions (unfortunately OS9 only -- and don't work in Classic). Their newest Combat Mission game is going to be OSX, but I can't remember if that's out yet.
Talk of the Nation, when he was the host, was the best thing on the radio. But no one else has been able to pull that off.