Not really. It is a common tactic. Announce something that people will say "great idea", even if it doesn't stand a chance of passing. If it passes, no harm. If it doesn't pass, then make a big commotion about how it was shot down by [insert party here]. Win, win!
I'm not arguing that I made it easier, cheaper, faster for the State. I just made it cheaper for me by not paying H&R an extra fee for something that was probably pure profit for them. I'm not hurting for that money (I've probably spent more on a toy for my kid when he didn't need it), but give me a cheaper option to accomplish the same task and I'll probably take it.
I've advocated for reverse tax forms. That is the IRS already has all the information (W2, 1098G, 1098T, etc) now, why don't they prepare a one/two page report, mail them out in late January. You can review the form and if it looks correct you either wait until April 15th or mail in a confirmation letter at which point they cut you a check, or you cut them a check. If the information isn't correct or you wish to contest it, you send back a rejection letter with a completed form of what you think it should be.
That wouldn't eliminate all forms, but for 80% of the people it would take just a few minutes to confirm the totals looked right and mail back a pre-made confirmation letter. For the other 20%, you get to explain why you should pay less taxes (because nobody would take the time to pay more, right?) Everybody would still have to do something, but the amount of work you need to do would be just a few minutes. The amount of work the IRS would need to do would be, a few minutes as everything would be done by a computer and automated equipment. Auditors and staff would only need to review the 20% (if that) of the paper forms that came back in. That would make it easier (almost all automated), cheaper (less people, less paper forms needed), and faster (review and mail back a yes or no letter).
But that's not how our government works. So I'll just keep mailing my form in, and they will just keep messing up the direct deposit, deal?
OR an Android phone that will likely be hacked several times a year
This.
Reading the article it appears that when your phone is paired it will send a notification, that you choose yes/no to to verify you intend to login. So a message sent over open air waves? That seems like a bad idea. Its not clear if this is their FIDO implementation or 2FA. This seems to be the case though as they claim it will stop sites that prompt for a username/password/token because without connecting to a valid google account it won't trigger the message on your phone. So something has to be pushed to your phone.
Even if the device generates a token like YubiKeys, having that on your phone seems like a bad idea as your phone can be hacked and that key can be extracted.
I had an employer install Semantic Security tokens the same way on our machines, while the idea is nice, there is no assurance that it can't be hacked. The something you carry part of 2FA should not be something that can connect to the internet directly/indirectly as when the device is hacked, so is your key. A USB dongle, or standalone bluetooth token keychain is way more secure, not perfect, but better than sending a message than can be viewed.
The only reason I use them is because there is no free way to e-file if you have a middle class income.
You can print out the forms and mail them in for less than $2.00 (mine was $1.38 for postage). It still took two weeks to process, then an additional two weeks to mail me a check because something didn't match on my bank account (I don't know why I bother anymore).
Federal was electronically sent and processed in two weeks as well (then direct deposited in my bank account).
The sound bar was a "5.1" setup, really though it was one of those "3.1" and we bounce sound off the ceiling to fake rear channels. So the TOSLink cable was just fine as it support 5.1 Dolby Digital. There may have been some compression artifacts, but I would never have bought a system that tries to fake speaker placement. I actually told him to buy a good receiver and re-purpose some old stereo speakers for the fronts. Then once he had the cash, buy a good center, fronts, rears, and a powered subwoofer. That way he could really tick off the neighbors. He was in a hurry and wanted something now.
Anyway, he is happy with the optical cable as now the sound bar fires right up after he turns on the tv. He said even the subwoofer works, which with HDMI it never did. So in the end, an old tech that doesn't support DRM sounds way better than the newer stuff with DRM, because it worked.
I'll tell you one thing, if you just use decent HDMI cables you'll probably never get this error.
It is not always the cables. Unless the cable is over 6', or is made of crappy wire, almost any HDMI cable is fine. HDCP errors can be because of small timing issues between devices, stream timing errors, or just random fluctuations. In general HDCP was not designed to enhance the viewers experience, it was to limit your experience. Take it away and you the viewer loose nothing. Add it, and you the viewer can loose everything.
I just had a co-worker who hooked up a sound bar via HDMI, it would take 5 minutes before it would be recognized and start playing the audio. I gave him an optical cable instead, once hooked up the audio worked right off the bat. I'm sure he just loves how the manufacture added HDCP for his enjoyment!
the cost of the gasoline ALREADY IN YOUR TANKS didn't change from when it was delivered
The owner isn't charging you for the product they bought, they are charging you for the replacement of the product you consumed. If they didn't, they wouldn't be able to stock as much the next time they get supplied, and so on until they have no product to sell. That is why the price changes daily, you are at the mercy of the oil supplier, not the re-seller.
The same is true with Netflix, if they don't adjust the price or service to keep future supplier costs under control; it will eventually eat up all the profits until everything they do is at a loss. Then the company closes its doors.
If you want someone to blame, just follow the chain of money. In this case it goes all the way up to the media companies who want more profit per showing while providing the same product which now costs them nothing to distribute. I'm sure this has to be a few media companies business models. Make as much shoddy content as possible, even if it is at a loss. Then sell it to cable companies and streaming companies for decades making back the money several folds. Every piece of content will make you some money, so the more you have the more you make. But this all relies on keeping consumers from owning or controlling the media (or a copy thereof).
Of course I don't subscribe to Netflix or own an AirPlay device. If I did, a simple Amazon search shows a few pass-through HDMI boxes that record straight to MP4. I might invest in one of those.
Comcast, umm I mean Xfinity, or whatever they want to call themselves these days keeps sending me an offer for $5 more I can get basic cable! Those go straight into the shredder. I've even had someone stop by and offer us that deal; to which I've stated that even if they paid me $5 a month, I still wouldn't take their cable.
I also canceled AT&T DSL (1.5Mbit was too slow to stream) and DirectTv (I can't even begin to explain how bad AT&T messed that up). AT&T keeps hounding me with deals to the point where it's almost free as well, again I will not go back even if they offer to pay me. (As an aside, the DSL portion took nearly 5 months to remove from my bill, because AT&T I guess?)
I'm pretty happy with a $30 60Mbit connection (sadly from Comcast), and a $35 streaming service which includes DVR and channels for the kids. The money I'm not paying AT&T I'm using to buy a few DVD sets a month and stock up on content. When prices for Internet and Streaming get above my threshold of pain, I'll cancel both and bing on my stock of DVD's. I'll then use the extra money to buy even more physical content as I see cable and streaming as throwing away money on something I can never own.
My observations for the media industry in general are that ABC, NBC, and Fox seem to get the streaming idea and there are free services for those, but CBS is out of their mind if they think I will pay anything for their content. Disney seems to be churning out the crap to fill more channels so they can command a higher price but the things that made their channels attractive in the first place no longer exist (I'm talking about classic cartoons or movies), so the rat isn't getting a dime from me. Netflix, Hulu, Apple, Amazon, etc those are nice but the content revolves so fast that a series you start watching today may not be there next week, so again no thanks. Premium services such as HBO might be worth it, but I'm not interested in anything they have to offer at the moment. The stuff I am interested in I can pick up in a few years in the bargain bin for $20 or less (commercial free and playable on any device I want).
The media companies seem to think I'm a slot machine and will keep paying for the same content over and over again, but there are other things competing for my attention (games for one). While they may enjoy a period where things slow down as far as cancellations, eventually without new gains the current set of users won't support their model and things will collapse. It is only a matter of time.
You would be surprised. I was talking to a co-worker who has been an engineer (not the train kind) for about 10 years about the weather and how it was cold now but we would welcome the cold in the hot summer (I'm in California). He stated, that "yeah, in the summer when we are closer to the sun it gets so much hotter". I had to roll my eyes as I explained that while yes we were in an elliptical orbit, both focal points were still inside the sun and the difference was minimal. To make matters worse that in summer the Northern Hemisphere is further from the sun, not closer. It took a light and an orange to explain how the tilt of the earth was the main culprit. This co-worker had to go through 3 years of college physics which they had to discussed things like this.
I also don't allow my significant other to answers the kids questions about science stuff as I usually roll my eyes on how wrong some of the answers are. The recent answer I overheard on why we change time twice a year was a doozy; something about the earth speeding up and slowing down as we went past the sun.
I'm sorry if you were just trying to be funny and I didn't pick up on it, but some people believe exactly what they read without thinking about stuff.
Point in case I had a friend in high school who watched a Twilight Zone episode with me where the premise was that people were sad because of their tears; and if you collected them in bottles you wouldn't be so sad. A few days later he was telling some other kids about how he started collecting his tears in bottles to make him happier. It was all I could do to not laugh at him, but afterwards I explained to him that it was a science fiction show, and the fiction part meant it was made up.
Given what people spout as facts these days, my faith in humanity is at an all time low.
Current job; password must be changed every 30 days. You also can't use the last 12 passwords, nor can you use certain combinations (still no rules on that so its hit and miss on what will work and what won't). Password can't be less then 10 characters, but not more than 16. Can't contain a word, but again that is hit and miss. All in all, most people just write it down on a post-it notes and put it in their wallets.
The more important question, why is your backoffice using wifi in the first place? Use wired connections which won't go down in the middle of the day because of interference, the data won't be sniffed, and you know exactly what machines can access protected resources.
I had a fight about this with a department that wanted to use wireless credit card machines outside the building because it was convenient. That was until I sat outside with a laptop on a break and sniffed all the credit card transactions because the vendor never encrypted the data and didn't support any wifi encryption settings on the devices. After that the solution was a few 100' cables and a few rugs.
You do know that's not how heat rises? Standing on the South Pole the heat won't go straight into the earth because North is up. It will go "up" into outer space, just like it would anywhere on the earth.
Now yes, the Ocean will contribute to the heating/cooling of the land mass, but that is mainly because of the wind which blows hot/cold air onto land. There is some direct heat/cold transfer at the beaches, but that is tiny compared to the wind.
Wear slip-on shoes. Or my favorite, I once wore over sized fluffy slippers through security (I had major sun burns to the top of my feet and wearing socks just irritated them to no end). I got strange looks, but nobody questioned me as to why I was wearing them.
P.S. kids don't have to take off their shoes, so maybe claim your a big child?
I'm kind of bummed, now I won't know what laptops and electronics everyone else is carrying. But on the other hand I'm excited to see the new show. It helps if you imagine everything a TSA agent says with a heavy Shakespearian accent.
Now if only someone could make a popcorn bag that would pop as it goes through the x-ray machine, but alas that is not how x-rays work.
My solution for bright leds; a roll of black electrical tape and a paper punch. Makes nice round dots that cover annoying leds. The plus side, if you want to sell it, just peel the tape off and its as good a new.
Everything in my living room has these; its annoying to watch tv in a dark room with blinding led's. My laptops/tablets also have these over the cameras and microphones.
Those systems are buried at 20 feet or more to work. I don't know that you would need to go to that extreme as your not trying to keep it at a constant temperature, just keep it from getting too warm or to cold. Heck I would get a BBQ probe and dig a few holes and do a test on some very hot days, 20 degrees or more would be better than nothing.
Texas has some nice floods, but a good sealed box should work. Maybe a thick ABS plastic with seals. If your worried about a little water shorting things out, you could epoxy the electronics and leave exposed a heat sink on the cpu making the whole thing pretty water-proof. A layer of high temperature silicone poured over it might also work as well (the stuff used in baking ware).
In the end it might not work, but it was just a thought on how you might be able to keep the temperature a little more even throughout the year.
If I ever win the lottery I'm doing the whole Geothermal Heat Pump thing as I hate the sound of the compressor running (silent running my butt!)
Slashdot Mirror
Buy an encyclopedia on Mount Fuji. Or at the very least a few books on the subject and leave the frickin map alone!
You may be announcing this a bit prematurely.
Not really. It is a common tactic. Announce something that people will say "great idea", even if it doesn't stand a chance of passing. If it passes, no harm. If it doesn't pass, then make a big commotion about how it was shot down by [insert party here]. Win, win!
Our state legislature is planning to fuel us 100% by the smell of their own farts.
Ahh, the San Francisco way!
If that doesn't work, you can run off of smugness.
I'm not arguing that I made it easier, cheaper, faster for the State. I just made it cheaper for me by not paying H&R an extra fee for something that was probably pure profit for them. I'm not hurting for that money (I've probably spent more on a toy for my kid when he didn't need it), but give me a cheaper option to accomplish the same task and I'll probably take it.
I've advocated for reverse tax forms. That is the IRS already has all the information (W2, 1098G, 1098T, etc) now, why don't they prepare a one/two page report, mail them out in late January. You can review the form and if it looks correct you either wait until April 15th or mail in a confirmation letter at which point they cut you a check, or you cut them a check. If the information isn't correct or you wish to contest it, you send back a rejection letter with a completed form of what you think it should be.
That wouldn't eliminate all forms, but for 80% of the people it would take just a few minutes to confirm the totals looked right and mail back a pre-made confirmation letter. For the other 20%, you get to explain why you should pay less taxes (because nobody would take the time to pay more, right?) Everybody would still have to do something, but the amount of work you need to do would be just a few minutes. The amount of work the IRS would need to do would be, a few minutes as everything would be done by a computer and automated equipment. Auditors and staff would only need to review the 20% (if that) of the paper forms that came back in. That would make it easier (almost all automated), cheaper (less people, less paper forms needed), and faster (review and mail back a yes or no letter).
But that's not how our government works. So I'll just keep mailing my form in, and they will just keep messing up the direct deposit, deal?
Yes, I actually audit my CC bill to make sure there's nothing funny on there.
Weirdo!!!
OR an Android phone that will likely be hacked several times a year
This.
Reading the article it appears that when your phone is paired it will send a notification, that you choose yes/no to to verify you intend to login. So a message sent over open air waves? That seems like a bad idea. Its not clear if this is their FIDO implementation or 2FA. This seems to be the case though as they claim it will stop sites that prompt for a username/password/token because without connecting to a valid google account it won't trigger the message on your phone. So something has to be pushed to your phone.
Even if the device generates a token like YubiKeys, having that on your phone seems like a bad idea as your phone can be hacked and that key can be extracted. I had an employer install Semantic Security tokens the same way on our machines, while the idea is nice, there is no assurance that it can't be hacked. The something you carry part of 2FA should not be something that can connect to the internet directly/indirectly as when the device is hacked, so is your key. A USB dongle, or standalone bluetooth token keychain is way more secure, not perfect, but better than sending a message than can be viewed.
Isn't it the _basic_ role of the IRS to make it as simple and automated as possible ?!?
Ahh, thats a good one. Almost spit out my drink on that one!
Whatever happened to filling out your taxes on a postcard?
You can, its just that the postcard is 2 meters wide, by 1 meter tall, double sided, and 6pt font.
The only reason I use them is because there is no free way to e-file if you have a middle class income.
You can print out the forms and mail them in for less than $2.00 (mine was $1.38 for postage). It still took two weeks to process, then an additional two weeks to mail me a check because something didn't match on my bank account (I don't know why I bother anymore).
Federal was electronically sent and processed in two weeks as well (then direct deposited in my bank account).
The sound bar was a "5.1" setup, really though it was one of those "3.1" and we bounce sound off the ceiling to fake rear channels. So the TOSLink cable was just fine as it support 5.1 Dolby Digital. There may have been some compression artifacts, but I would never have bought a system that tries to fake speaker placement. I actually told him to buy a good receiver and re-purpose some old stereo speakers for the fronts. Then once he had the cash, buy a good center, fronts, rears, and a powered subwoofer. That way he could really tick off the neighbors. He was in a hurry and wanted something now.
Anyway, he is happy with the optical cable as now the sound bar fires right up after he turns on the tv. He said even the subwoofer works, which with HDMI it never did. So in the end, an old tech that doesn't support DRM sounds way better than the newer stuff with DRM, because it worked.
I'll tell you one thing, if you just use decent HDMI cables you'll probably never get this error.
It is not always the cables. Unless the cable is over 6', or is made of crappy wire, almost any HDMI cable is fine. HDCP errors can be because of small timing issues between devices, stream timing errors, or just random fluctuations. In general HDCP was not designed to enhance the viewers experience, it was to limit your experience. Take it away and you the viewer loose nothing. Add it, and you the viewer can loose everything.
I just had a co-worker who hooked up a sound bar via HDMI, it would take 5 minutes before it would be recognized and start playing the audio. I gave him an optical cable instead, once hooked up the audio worked right off the bat. I'm sure he just loves how the manufacture added HDCP for his enjoyment!
the cost of the gasoline ALREADY IN YOUR TANKS didn't change from when it was delivered
The owner isn't charging you for the product they bought, they are charging you for the replacement of the product you consumed. If they didn't, they wouldn't be able to stock as much the next time they get supplied, and so on until they have no product to sell. That is why the price changes daily, you are at the mercy of the oil supplier, not the re-seller.
The same is true with Netflix, if they don't adjust the price or service to keep future supplier costs under control; it will eventually eat up all the profits until everything they do is at a loss. Then the company closes its doors.
If you want someone to blame, just follow the chain of money. In this case it goes all the way up to the media companies who want more profit per showing while providing the same product which now costs them nothing to distribute. I'm sure this has to be a few media companies business models. Make as much shoddy content as possible, even if it is at a loss. Then sell it to cable companies and streaming companies for decades making back the money several folds. Every piece of content will make you some money, so the more you have the more you make. But this all relies on keeping consumers from owning or controlling the media (or a copy thereof).
Of course I don't subscribe to Netflix or own an AirPlay device. If I did, a simple Amazon search shows a few pass-through HDMI boxes that record straight to MP4. I might invest in one of those.
Comcast, umm I mean Xfinity, or whatever they want to call themselves these days keeps sending me an offer for $5 more I can get basic cable! Those go straight into the shredder. I've even had someone stop by and offer us that deal; to which I've stated that even if they paid me $5 a month, I still wouldn't take their cable.
I also canceled AT&T DSL (1.5Mbit was too slow to stream) and DirectTv (I can't even begin to explain how bad AT&T messed that up). AT&T keeps hounding me with deals to the point where it's almost free as well, again I will not go back even if they offer to pay me. (As an aside, the DSL portion took nearly 5 months to remove from my bill, because AT&T I guess?)
I'm pretty happy with a $30 60Mbit connection (sadly from Comcast), and a $35 streaming service which includes DVR and channels for the kids. The money I'm not paying AT&T I'm using to buy a few DVD sets a month and stock up on content. When prices for Internet and Streaming get above my threshold of pain, I'll cancel both and bing on my stock of DVD's. I'll then use the extra money to buy even more physical content as I see cable and streaming as throwing away money on something I can never own.
My observations for the media industry in general are that ABC, NBC, and Fox seem to get the streaming idea and there are free services for those, but CBS is out of their mind if they think I will pay anything for their content. Disney seems to be churning out the crap to fill more channels so they can command a higher price but the things that made their channels attractive in the first place no longer exist (I'm talking about classic cartoons or movies), so the rat isn't getting a dime from me. Netflix, Hulu, Apple, Amazon, etc those are nice but the content revolves so fast that a series you start watching today may not be there next week, so again no thanks. Premium services such as HBO might be worth it, but I'm not interested in anything they have to offer at the moment. The stuff I am interested in I can pick up in a few years in the bargain bin for $20 or less (commercial free and playable on any device I want).
The media companies seem to think I'm a slot machine and will keep paying for the same content over and over again, but there are other things competing for my attention (games for one). While they may enjoy a period where things slow down as far as cancellations, eventually without new gains the current set of users won't support their model and things will collapse. It is only a matter of time.
Came here to say the same thing. The DVD catalog is way bigger than the streaming catalog.
I still stream a bunch of recent stuff, but for classic shows and movies DVD is still king.
You would be surprised. I was talking to a co-worker who has been an engineer (not the train kind) for about 10 years about the weather and how it was cold now but we would welcome the cold in the hot summer (I'm in California). He stated, that "yeah, in the summer when we are closer to the sun it gets so much hotter". I had to roll my eyes as I explained that while yes we were in an elliptical orbit, both focal points were still inside the sun and the difference was minimal. To make matters worse that in summer the Northern Hemisphere is further from the sun, not closer. It took a light and an orange to explain how the tilt of the earth was the main culprit. This co-worker had to go through 3 years of college physics which they had to discussed things like this.
I also don't allow my significant other to answers the kids questions about science stuff as I usually roll my eyes on how wrong some of the answers are. The recent answer I overheard on why we change time twice a year was a doozy; something about the earth speeding up and slowing down as we went past the sun.
I'm sorry if you were just trying to be funny and I didn't pick up on it, but some people believe exactly what they read without thinking about stuff.
Point in case I had a friend in high school who watched a Twilight Zone episode with me where the premise was that people were sad because of their tears; and if you collected them in bottles you wouldn't be so sad. A few days later he was telling some other kids about how he started collecting his tears in bottles to make him happier. It was all I could do to not laugh at him, but afterwards I explained to him that it was a science fiction show, and the fiction part meant it was made up.
Given what people spout as facts these days, my faith in humanity is at an all time low.
No, they're a sign that the person who wrote it down needs to be fired.
I think you have things confused, it should be:
No, they're a sign that the person who wrote the policy needs to be fired.
Current job; password must be changed every 30 days. You also can't use the last 12 passwords, nor can you use certain combinations (still no rules on that so its hit and miss on what will work and what won't). Password can't be less then 10 characters, but not more than 16. Can't contain a word, but again that is hit and miss. All in all, most people just write it down on a post-it notes and put it in their wallets.
The more important question, why is your backoffice using wifi in the first place? Use wired connections which won't go down in the middle of the day because of interference, the data won't be sniffed, and you know exactly what machines can access protected resources.
I had a fight about this with a department that wanted to use wireless credit card machines outside the building because it was convenient. That was until I sat outside with a laptop on a break and sniffed all the credit card transactions because the vendor never encrypted the data and didn't support any wifi encryption settings on the devices. After that the solution was a few 100' cables and a few rugs.
Make something idiot-proof, and they will build a better idiot.
-- Murphy's Law
Alaska is above what? Pacific Ocean, right?
You do know that's not how heat rises? Standing on the South Pole the heat won't go straight into the earth because North is up. It will go "up" into outer space, just like it would anywhere on the earth.
Now yes, the Ocean will contribute to the heating/cooling of the land mass, but that is mainly because of the wind which blows hot/cold air onto land. There is some direct heat/cold transfer at the beaches, but that is tiny compared to the wind.
Are there liberals in russia?
Yes. They mainly hang out in prisons and graveyards.
Wear slip-on shoes. Or my favorite, I once wore over sized fluffy slippers through security (I had major sun burns to the top of my feet and wearing socks just irritated them to no end). I got strange looks, but nobody questioned me as to why I was wearing them.
P.S. kids don't have to take off their shoes, so maybe claim your a big child?
I'm kind of bummed, now I won't know what laptops and electronics everyone else is carrying. But on the other hand I'm excited to see the new show. It helps if you imagine everything a TSA agent says with a heavy Shakespearian accent.
Now if only someone could make a popcorn bag that would pop as it goes through the x-ray machine, but alas that is not how x-rays work.
My solution for bright leds; a roll of black electrical tape and a paper punch. Makes nice round dots that cover annoying leds. The plus side, if you want to sell it, just peel the tape off and its as good a new.
Everything in my living room has these; its annoying to watch tv in a dark room with blinding led's. My laptops/tablets also have these over the cameras and microphones.
I was thinking of the GeoThermal Heat Pump concept that is used as an efficient HVAC system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_heat_pump.
Those systems are buried at 20 feet or more to work. I don't know that you would need to go to that extreme as your not trying to keep it at a constant temperature, just keep it from getting too warm or to cold. Heck I would get a BBQ probe and dig a few holes and do a test on some very hot days, 20 degrees or more would be better than nothing.
Texas has some nice floods, but a good sealed box should work. Maybe a thick ABS plastic with seals. If your worried about a little water shorting things out, you could epoxy the electronics and leave exposed a heat sink on the cpu making the whole thing pretty water-proof. A layer of high temperature silicone poured over it might also work as well (the stuff used in baking ware).
In the end it might not work, but it was just a thought on how you might be able to keep the temperature a little more even throughout the year.
If I ever win the lottery I'm doing the whole Geothermal Heat Pump thing as I hate the sound of the compressor running (silent running my butt!)