MSWords -- a patented approach for combining letters of the alphabet
into meaningful units that can be "read" (for info on "reading", see MS
patent 9997645, "A method for interpreting strings of alphabetic
characters")
How about a contest to come up with ways to prolong the life of the Hubble telescope? It has been such a boon to astronomy and yet they plan on letting it just die. With some good minds out there and a little incentive maybe a safe alternative could be found to extend its life longer than is expected.
I use to work for a digital surveilance camera company and I don't have a lot of respect for the face recognition software out there. If you set it too high you get an unexceptible number of false positives if you set it too low you don't get a match.
Maybe it is easier with license numbers, after all we have had character recogintion for quite some time that is very good. But what do you do with it?
Guess you could use it to tell where all of your tourists are coming from or going to.
Then you are perfectly ready to organize all of your accounts by where they were transacted and then deal with all of the different rates that each state and/or locality is wanting you to submit your accounts in?
You have the software to parse all of those transactions and follow the rules as defined by each of those states? Do you even know what the rules are in each of those states?
It definitely not about the megapixel, but how else do you do a quick little statement that identifies the quality of a digital camera. When you deal with a digital as aposed to a analog camera it is like talking about the film as well as the hardware.
I understand you point about regulating POTS and phone companies and other such. Because I know what they are delivering and they are delivering a specific service. I know that they are delivering a line to my house and that line may be set up to run DSL, POTS or what have you. But they don't know and cannot tell if I am speaking russian over the phone or I am sending a fax. Not without tapping the line and listening in. This is why you are not charged for using the phone for sending a fax differently from using the phone to make a voice call.
The same is true with TCP/IP or V/IP or any other "protocol" that is being sent over the 'Net. It is like deciding whether or not I am speaking russian or klingon. If you are going to tax VoIP then you will need some way to identify that it is VoIP and for how long. But that is like trying to track how long I was speaking klingon and not russian.
I am not saying that this sort of thing is not going to be taxed, I am just saying that when you start trying to identify what protocol is to be taxed and what isn't is like trying to grab jello, it will slip through your fingers. If we talk about VoIP what are we talking about, are we talking about that particular protocol or are we talking about translating voice over an internet connection? If so does streaming audio fall under the category of VoIP? and should that be taxed? How will the ISP and the goverment identify what is going over their TCP/IP connections without tapping?
You expect every company large and small to keep records on how many goods were sent to what state and for how much? and then send them a check based on the tax rate of that state. Though to be perfectly honest it should be based on the county as well since most sales tax has a county component as well.
So, instead of having to only keep a record of how much I sold and sending in a check on the sales tax on that you want me to keep 50 times that much accounting.
I think we are maybe not getting each others point on this. I agree that a VoIP connection can be identified when you are either using a server dedicated to that or a service that is using VoIP. BUT VoIP is only a protocol that runs over TCP/IP just like SMTP and what have you. It is not possible to tell just what exactly you are sending from one Internet location to another. A packet is a packet. You can only tell what kind of packet it is when you start putting the packets together. I can sniff ports and tell you that if it is going to port 21 it is probaly an FTP session, but I don't know that for certain. Port 21 and FTP are tied together by convention. I could send email over that port and as long as the server is expection SMTP instead of FTP then it is going to translate it just fine.
VoIP companies collect money because they are providing a service, in most cases tools and a server that is dedicated to the task. So, yea they are points of service that can be taxed, but if I set up a direct connection from one IP address to another you cannot tell me if I am using VoIP or SMTP or some strange protocol designed by joe smoe.
So other then when you are hitting the POTS line again, when can you tell you are using VoIP.
But these are hardwired areas. You get taxed on your phone bill because you are using the phone companies line, you are taxed at the mall because you are at the mall and bought something.
A packet is a packet. Other than using some specific protocol or server there is no way to determine what is the ultimate design for that packet. Unless of course you want your ISP, Government, ectera, ectera to monitor every damn packet you send, where you send it to and what it does.
The only way they know you bought something on the Internet is that some place registered that you sent such and such amount for such and such item. They don't know it because you sent a POST from a web page. So other than having a specific place that you have to transmit your VoIP to and from, how do they know you are doing VoIP? Especially since money is not necessarily changing hands.
We will fight them on the beaches...
on
Update on Playfair
·
· Score: 3, Funny
The problem with that is how do WE know what commerce you are performing "on the Internet". Though I guess we could put in a "clipper" type chip to find out?
A packet is a packet, is a packet. What packet are you little boy?
Slashdot Mirror
MSWords -- a patented approach for combining letters of the alphabet into meaningful units that can be "read" (for info on "reading", see MS patent 9997645, "A method for interpreting strings of alphabetic characters")
Would you call this technique HiWiFi or HighWiFi?
I quess they decided there wasn't enough scrap metal left by use to make the trip cost effective.
How about a contest to come up with ways to prolong the life of the Hubble telescope? It has been such a boon to astronomy and yet they plan on letting it just die. With some good minds out there and a little incentive maybe a safe alternative could be found to extend its life longer than is expected.
They could start by trying to prove there is some on the third planet from that G3 star near the edge of the Milky Way galaxy.
Maybe, you will need to invite them over for lunch so they can check up on your work.
I mean if they can't find Dolly Parton then obviously they aren't looking too hard.
When you set it in the middle it is called a successful demonstration for the client.
Maybe it is easier with license numbers, after all we have had character recogintion for quite some time that is very good. But what do you do with it?
Guess you could use it to tell where all of your tourists are coming from or going to.
At least for the next 600 years.
Or at least a bit of tin foil.
I never had any problem highlighting. It marks just fine on the screen. Though the text kept on moving on me.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/20/ms_history /
You have the software to parse all of those transactions and follow the rules as defined by each of those states? Do you even know what the rules are in each of those states?
But if it does connect to POTS who gets the bill?
Maybe we could translate it into ISO instead?
You obviously have never tried to run a business.
The same is true with TCP/IP or V/IP or any other "protocol" that is being sent over the 'Net. It is like deciding whether or not I am speaking russian or klingon. If you are going to tax VoIP then you will need some way to identify that it is VoIP and for how long. But that is like trying to track how long I was speaking klingon and not russian.
I am not saying that this sort of thing is not going to be taxed, I am just saying that when you start trying to identify what protocol is to be taxed and what isn't is like trying to grab jello, it will slip through your fingers. If we talk about VoIP what are we talking about, are we talking about that particular protocol or are we talking about translating voice over an internet connection? If so does streaming audio fall under the category of VoIP? and should that be taxed? How will the ISP and the goverment identify what is going over their TCP/IP connections without tapping?
So, instead of having to only keep a record of how much I sold and sending in a check on the sales tax on that you want me to keep 50 times that much accounting.
Please take my originaly thought "A Moving Target" and change the word goverment for corporation. It should read better.
I think we are maybe not getting each others point on this. I agree that a VoIP connection can be identified when you are either using a server dedicated to that or a service that is using VoIP. BUT VoIP is only a protocol that runs over TCP/IP just like SMTP and what have you. It is not possible to tell just what exactly you are sending from one Internet location to another. A packet is a packet. You can only tell what kind of packet it is when you start putting the packets together. I can sniff ports and tell you that if it is going to port 21 it is probaly an FTP session, but I don't know that for certain. Port 21 and FTP are tied together by convention. I could send email over that port and as long as the server is expection SMTP instead of FTP then it is going to translate it just fine.
VoIP companies collect money because they are providing a service, in most cases tools and a server that is dedicated to the task. So, yea they are points of service that can be taxed, but if I set up a direct connection from one IP address to another you cannot tell me if I am using VoIP or SMTP or some strange protocol designed by joe smoe.
So other then when you are hitting the POTS line again, when can you tell you are using VoIP.
A packet is a packet. Other than using some specific protocol or server there is no way to determine what is the ultimate design for that packet. Unless of course you want your ISP, Government, ectera, ectera to monitor every damn packet you send, where you send it to and what it does.
The only way they know you bought something on the Internet is that some place registered that you sent such and such amount for such and such item. They don't know it because you sent a POST from a web page. So other than having a specific place that you have to transmit your VoIP to and from, how do they know you are doing VoIP? Especially since money is not necessarily changing hands.
Opps, wrong war.
A packet is a packet, is a packet. What packet are you little boy?