I use the freefile ones, after running the numbers on the paper forms. This let's me double check everything.
Then file electronically. I agree though, filling out the electronic W-2 copy is a pain in the butt. Come on IRS, you already have it! Or will have very soon after my return gets there. Why do I have to re-enter the data you already have?
"Vertical windows are poorly oriented for capturing power."
In the winter a south-facing vertical window does pretty well with the winter sun being rather low in the sky if you are 40 degrees or more of latitude.
"They really didn't fear INS at all. However, each said they very carefully paid their taxes to the IRS each year, often omitting some questionable deductions to which they might be entitled."
So they also fear the Inquisition err IRS?
Inquisition Retraining Service? Now you have me thinking. That would explain a lot.
It's always a good year when you can use the short form.
"There was one dubious study that claimed that $75k maxed out 'happiness'."
Not maxed out, but I think that is about right for the inflection point on the diminishing returns curve.
$50k to $75k was a noticeable bump up in happiness. $75k to $100k was a lesser bump. If I could drop 20% of my salary for 20% less hours I would do it. A massive raise to $200k would have only a minor effect on my happiness, and that would be limited to the extent that it might let me retire sooner.
Note that I live in an area with reasonable housing prices and in a state with no income taxes. The inflection point is not a constant for all circumstances.
The digital signals don't reach this far (the analog used to), and no cable company serves the area. The only choice is satellite, and both of them are steadily raising prices.
Internet I have. Obviously. Over fiber-optic cable from the local Public Utility District.
As in the kind that are about 5 ft in diameter and bouncing across the road at about 30 mph.
I do hope they have that case in the computer. I'd hate to get a panic-stop reaction or go into the ditch as the computer franticly tries to avoid the "obstruction."
"We already know that using ethanol is a big resource wasing flop, where do you think the ethanol comes from? Yeast and sugar. Going one step up isn't going to help,"
The energy cost of distillation would be avoided with a corn syrup fuel cell. That's worth quite a bit economically.
Figure out how much energy your car uses, then the area of solar panels needed to provide that energy. Then add on the need to use the car during the short cold days of winter.
And you can't use the solar panels to charge the car at night, unless you have another set of batteries to store the energy made by the panels during the day while the car is not there.
You will still be using grid power. Or some liquid or gaseous fuel. With luck you will use less of it than now.
The utility will probably just charge you a fixed connection fee to be on the grid so they get maintenance money regardless of how much power you use. My electric bill is already set up that way. I pay 41 cents a day for that connection fee, and the actual kw-h charge is above that.
"Relativity was posited as a theory over a century ago. How many people truly get it today, in 2014."
As a fraction of the population, I suspect it's about the same as it was then. It's just too counter-intuitive to us slow pokes at less than 1% of c, and the math needed to get past that is beyond most people. I've had math up through diffy-Q, and I can barely manage it. I can get the right answers to textbook questions, but as to really understanding at a deep level what is going on, no.
Not as big as the promotors would have you believe, but it is certainly significant, and will be for a decade yet. The wells have a high depletion rate, and when they are gone, then ????
The US is only importing 40% of it's oil now, partly due to shale oil, and partly due to lower demand caused by the high prices that make shale oil profitable. That said, when the shale oil promoters show up, keep your hands and your wallet in your pocket.
"This also would gain California much more influence in the federal government (more senators, more electoral votes)."
Since the reason to split it up is that the different regions can't agree, it seems unlikely their Senators would agree after splitting up. They would likely net out to about the same.
California leaving the union would not end all trade relations with them. If nothing else they will have to keep selling stuff to the rest of the US to pay for their electric bill.
Given they already demand special air quality rules, special water quality rules, and have marked their entire State as carcinogenic, and keep claiming they pay more in taxes than they get back, you would think they would ask to leave.
Stomping off in a huff and shelling a Federal military post on your way out has been previously determined to be not allowable. Asking politely to leave is protected under the First Amendment.
"No comment on whether or not the state of Jefferson would ever be able to support itself without the rest of California,"
Support itself at what level of government meddling? Jefferson probably would not be able to support the level of intrusive and all-encompassing supervision, nor provide the level of financial support to it's citizens that is in vogue at UC Berkeley. But it should be able to provide the level of services that its citizens actually feel they need.
Trivial case, do they need a formal Animal Control Department, or is the shotgun in the closet adequate to the task?
"the point of civilization isn't to protect property but to improve the lives of everyone. That's a fundamental philosophy that a lot disagree with."
I might well disagree, depending on who defines "improve the lives of everyone". The world has plenty of unhappy experience with those who are convinced they can run other peoples lives better than they can.
The House is where population is directly represented. The Senate is where States are directly represented. The Senate was supposed to protect the Sovereignty of States (which function was seriously harmed by the 17th Amendment) and limit the ability of a tyranny of the majority. I.e. the lightly populated states could combine forces to stop a majority in the House, which will inevitably be controlled by the big cities.
The interesting thing at the moment is that the Senate is more controlled by the big cities. (Seattle has two Senators, the rest of Washington gets ignored in that chamber.) Since not all House districts have a major city, they still listen to the countryside on occasion.
"10. Don't covet. -- At least here it's debatable. The whole world revolves around coveting."
If you read covet as 'don't drive yourself crazy with envy' then it makes much more sense. Taking out a HELOC to buy a newer SUV than the neighbors have was the latest large-scale manifestation of ignoring that one.
The way I described it to my kid was to imagine that if you are Caesar, which Commandments actually help you run an efficient empire. As you noticed, six of them are good rules for public and private conduct. The first four are between you and the sky-being of your choice. Caesar doesn't care.
I feel your pain. I bought a second-hand truck with On-Star. They were really eager to turn it on for the three month free trial. then I read the Terms of Service. It was of the type "All possible liabilities shall accrue to you, and any possible benefits shall accrue to us."
It too longer to find the box than it took to pull every connector off of it. Now the terms of service are "You leave me alone and I'll leave you alone." Much more acceptable. Still too much gadgetry on the truck, but at least the remote access connection is no more.
The truck also randomly locks it's own doors for no reason, though rain falling on the switch was clearly implicated once. I had to pop the door panel and apply the wire cutters to make that nonsense stop. And Off isn't off enough to the radio, which pulls down the battery in about 10 days, so now there is an "I mean off dammit" switch on that too. YO! GM! The truck might be parked for three months at a time! The battery should still be able to start it after that! I'll spot you 1 milliamp to run the clock, and that should be it.
I find I need both broadband and POTS. The fiberoptic line ends at the same power pole that the meter is attached to, and comes in on the same right of way. Anything, be it a drunk or a tree or high winds, that takes out power will also take out the fiberoptic cable. Then you need the phone to call in the outage. On the other hand, the first rainstorm of the fall reliably takes out the POTS system, and then I need the internet to "call in" that outage. So the Skype type of service does not make a compelling case.
AT&T's coverage is dodgy at best, Verizon is supposedly better, but I'm not buying a phone just to find out. (The work phone/leash uses AT&T.) There is no Sprint or T-mobile coverage at all. The local land-line purveyor clearly wants to dump my area, but can't without permission. So it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Or bad weather. "The GPS says there is a road here..." Splash into the flood. Or sliding across the black ice into the ditch.
Or inducing a crash with panic maneuvers to avoid the tumbleweed that the human would have just run over.
Now in good weather on boring roads (say between Battle Mountain and Winnemucca, or even better, Albert Lea to Rapid City) then a driver that won't fall asleep would be a benefit.
Now I feel better about disconnecting my on-star box. It took longer to find it than it did to pull every wire out of it. I couldn't get the box out of the dash though. I thought about sectioning it in place with a saws-all, but that seemed too paranoid even for me.
The other car not only has no on-star, but has a manual transmission too. And no ABS. The scary part is the dimwits in Engineering let some random computer get into the braking control circuit. That is supposed to be a an unhackable direct mechanical connection to the wheels. Apparently not anymore.
Stupid mistake #1. Zimmerman got out of the car. If Zimmerman had stayed in the car, then either Martin would have kept walking home, or if he had chosen to attack, would have had to kick in a window to get to Zimmerman, and there would have been no doubt about Zimmerman's self-defense claim.
Stupid mistake #2. Martin did not just keep walking. If Martin had kept on walking regardless of Zimmerman getting out of the car, Martin would have either gotten home safely, or Zimmerman would have shot him in the back, and there would be no doubt about his guilt.
What is clear is that at some point, for some reason, Martin turned and attacked. Was he a 17 year old gangster wannabe looking for some street cred, and beating up "a creepy cracker" seemed like a way to get it? Did Zimmerman start yelling out racial slurs, goading Martin beyond the point of reason? We don't know, and there was no evidence either way that could convince the jury. So they were left with reasonable doubt. And if you have reasonable doubt, you are required to acquit.
Slashdot Mirror
I use the freefile ones, after running the numbers on the paper forms. This let's me double check everything.
Then file electronically. I agree though, filling out the electronic W-2 copy is a pain in the butt. Come on IRS, you already have it! Or will have very soon after my return gets there. Why do I have to re-enter the data you already have?
"Vertical windows are poorly oriented for capturing power."
In the winter a south-facing vertical window does pretty well with the winter sun being rather low in the sky if you are 40 degrees or more of latitude.
"They really didn't fear INS at all. However, each said they very carefully paid their taxes to the IRS each year, often omitting some questionable deductions to which they might be entitled."
So they also fear the Inquisition err IRS?
Inquisition Retraining Service? Now you have me thinking. That would explain a lot.
It's always a good year when you can use the short form.
"There was one dubious study that claimed that $75k maxed out 'happiness'."
Not maxed out, but I think that is about right for the inflection point on the diminishing returns curve.
$50k to $75k was a noticeable bump up in happiness. $75k to $100k was a lesser bump. If I could drop 20% of my salary for 20% less hours I would do it. A massive raise to $200k would have only a minor effect on my happiness, and that would be limited to the extent that it might let me retire sooner.
Note that I live in an area with reasonable housing prices and in a state with no income taxes. The inflection point is not a constant for all circumstances.
Interesting site;
but the best signal is -71 db.
The digital signals don't reach this far (the analog used to), and no cable company serves the area. The only choice is satellite, and both of them are steadily raising prices.
Internet I have. Obviously. Over fiber-optic cable from the local Public Utility District.
As in the kind that are about 5 ft in diameter and bouncing across the road at about 30 mph.
I do hope they have that case in the computer. I'd hate to get a panic-stop reaction or go into the ditch as the computer franticly tries to avoid the "obstruction."
"We already know that using ethanol is a big resource wasing flop, where do you think the ethanol comes from? Yeast and sugar. Going one step up isn't going to help,"
The energy cost of distillation would be avoided with a corn syrup fuel cell. That's worth quite a bit economically.
Figure out how much energy your car uses, then the area of solar panels needed to provide that energy. Then add on the need to use the car during the short cold days of winter.
And you can't use the solar panels to charge the car at night, unless you have another set of batteries to store the energy made by the panels during the day while the car is not there.
You will still be using grid power. Or some liquid or gaseous fuel. With luck you will use less of it than now.
The utility will probably just charge you a fixed connection fee to be on the grid so they get maintenance money regardless of how much power you use. My electric bill is already set up that way. I pay 41 cents a day for that connection fee, and the actual kw-h charge is above that.
"Relativity was posited as a theory over a century ago. How many people truly get it today, in 2014."
As a fraction of the population, I suspect it's about the same as it was then. It's just too counter-intuitive to us slow pokes at less than 1% of c, and the math needed to get past that is beyond most people. I've had math up through diffy-Q, and I can barely manage it. I can get the right answers to textbook questions, but as to really understanding at a deep level what is going on, no.
"I heard the shale oil thing is huge."
Not as big as the promotors would have you believe, but it is certainly significant, and will be for a decade yet. The wells have a high depletion rate, and when they are gone, then ????
The US is only importing 40% of it's oil now, partly due to shale oil, and partly due to lower demand caused by the high prices that make shale oil profitable. That said, when the shale oil promoters show up, keep your hands and your wallet in your pocket.
"Aluminum is a perfectly sound material as long as it's used correctly."
Exactly, so the question is which aluminum alloy are they using. Wikipedia's list is a good place to start on your choices.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_alloy
My electric bill has two lines, the connection fee ( a straight 41 cents per day) and the actual electrical usage fee.
Clearly the utilities can do it this way, but not all of them do.
"This also would gain California much more influence in the federal government (more senators, more electoral votes)."
Since the reason to split it up is that the different regions can't agree, it seems unlikely their Senators would agree after splitting up. They would likely net out to about the same.
California leaving the union would not end all trade relations with them. If nothing else they will have to keep selling stuff to the rest of the US to pay for their electric bill.
Given they already demand special air quality rules, special water quality rules, and have marked their entire State as carcinogenic, and keep claiming they pay more in taxes than they get back, you would think they would ask to leave.
Stomping off in a huff and shelling a Federal military post on your way out has been previously determined to be not allowable. Asking politely to leave is protected under the First Amendment.
"No comment on whether or not the state of Jefferson would ever be able to support itself without the rest of California,"
Support itself at what level of government meddling? Jefferson probably would not be able to support the level of intrusive and all-encompassing supervision, nor provide the level of financial support to it's citizens that is in vogue at UC Berkeley. But it should be able to provide the level of services that its citizens actually feel they need.
Trivial case, do they need a formal Animal Control Department, or is the shotgun in the closet adequate to the task?
"the point of civilization isn't to protect property but to improve the lives of everyone. That's a fundamental philosophy that a lot disagree with."
I might well disagree, depending on who defines "improve the lives of everyone". The world has plenty of unhappy experience with those who are convinced they can run other peoples lives better than they can.
The House is where population is directly represented. The Senate is where States are directly represented. The Senate was supposed to protect the Sovereignty of States (which function was seriously harmed by the 17th Amendment) and limit the ability of a tyranny of the majority. I.e. the lightly populated states could combine forces to stop a majority in the House, which will inevitably be controlled by the big cities.
The interesting thing at the moment is that the Senate is more controlled by the big cities. (Seattle has two Senators, the rest of Washington gets ignored in that chamber.) Since not all House districts have a major city, they still listen to the countryside on occasion.
"10. Don't covet. -- At least here it's debatable. The whole world revolves around coveting."
If you read covet as 'don't drive yourself crazy with envy' then it makes much more sense. Taking out a HELOC to buy a newer SUV than the neighbors have was the latest large-scale manifestation of ignoring that one.
The way I described it to my kid was to imagine that if you are Caesar, which Commandments actually help you run an efficient empire. As you noticed, six of them are good rules for public and private conduct. The first four are between you and the sky-being of your choice. Caesar doesn't care.
I feel your pain. I bought a second-hand truck with On-Star. They were really eager to turn it on for the three month free trial. then I read the Terms of Service. It was of the type "All possible liabilities shall accrue to you, and any possible benefits shall accrue to us."
It too longer to find the box than it took to pull every connector off of it. Now the terms of service are "You leave me alone and I'll leave you alone." Much more acceptable. Still too much gadgetry on the truck, but at least the remote access connection is no more.
The truck also randomly locks it's own doors for no reason, though rain falling on the switch was clearly implicated once. I had to pop the door panel and apply the wire cutters to make that nonsense stop. And Off isn't off enough to the radio, which pulls down the battery in about 10 days, so now there is an "I mean off dammit" switch on that too. YO! GM! The truck might be parked for three months at a time! The battery should still be able to start it after that! I'll spot you 1 milliamp to run the clock, and that should be it.
I find I need both broadband and POTS. The fiberoptic line ends at the same power pole that the meter is attached to, and comes in on the same right of way. Anything, be it a drunk or a tree or high winds, that takes out power will also take out the fiberoptic cable. Then you need the phone to call in the outage. On the other hand, the first rainstorm of the fall reliably takes out the POTS system, and then I need the internet to "call in" that outage. So the Skype type of service does not make a compelling case.
AT&T's coverage is dodgy at best, Verizon is supposedly better, but I'm not buying a phone just to find out. (The work phone/leash uses AT&T.) There is no Sprint or T-mobile coverage at all. The local land-line purveyor clearly wants to dump my area, but can't without permission. So it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
"Robot cars won't stop vandalism."
Or bad weather. "The GPS says there is a road here..." Splash into the flood. Or sliding across the black ice into the ditch.
Or inducing a crash with panic maneuvers to avoid the tumbleweed that the human would have just run over.
Now in good weather on boring roads (say between Battle Mountain and Winnemucca, or even better, Albert Lea to Rapid City) then a driver that won't fall asleep would be a benefit.
Now I feel better about disconnecting my on-star box. It took longer to find it than it did to pull every wire out of it. I couldn't get the box out of the dash though. I thought about sectioning it in place with a saws-all, but that seemed too paranoid even for me.
The other car not only has no on-star, but has a manual transmission too. And no ABS. The scary part is the dimwits in Engineering let some random computer get into the braking control circuit. That is supposed to be a an unhackable direct mechanical connection to the wheels. Apparently not anymore.
"The real fact is that if there were no guns at the scene, GZ would've gotten a beating and both men would still be alive."
Martin would still be alive. Zimmerman might be alive, dead, or permanently brain damaged. A skull can only take so many impacts on concrete.
"We know for a fact that he followed Martin,"
Stupid mistake #1. Zimmerman got out of the car. If Zimmerman had stayed in the car, then either Martin would have kept walking home, or if he had chosen to attack, would have had to kick in a window to get to Zimmerman, and there would have been no doubt about Zimmerman's self-defense claim.
Stupid mistake #2. Martin did not just keep walking. If Martin had kept on walking regardless of Zimmerman getting out of the car, Martin would have either gotten home safely, or Zimmerman would have shot him in the back, and there would be no doubt about his guilt.
What is clear is that at some point, for some reason, Martin turned and attacked. Was he a 17 year old gangster wannabe looking for some street cred, and beating up "a creepy cracker" seemed like a way to get it? Did Zimmerman start yelling out racial slurs, goading Martin beyond the point of reason? We don't know, and there was no evidence either way that could convince the jury. So they were left with reasonable doubt. And if you have reasonable doubt, you are required to acquit.