The "value of money" curve varies by individual, and I'm not convinced that on average it's logarithmic.
For some people, the value becomes "essentially zero" after a certain point. You know who these people are because after they die (or sometimes, before, but not voluntarily) you will find out that starting at some point in their lifetime they realized they "had enough money to last a lifetime" and quietly gave away all future net earnings, and/or they made a point of "living at a certain income level, and quietly giving away the rest."
Are you taxing assets (e.g. real estate tax, Florida's intangible property tax, etc.)?
Are you taxing wages aka "earned income?"
Are you taxing unearned income, including realized net capital gains?
Are you taxing "wealth transfers" like gifts and inheritances?
As long as you aren't taxing assets, someone with more money than he can spend in a lifetime will pay essentially the same taxes as someone else with the same lifestyle but fewer assets, provided his assets are all non-earning and non-growth (e.g. "cash") Both pay sales taxes, auto taxes, etc. Is that fair? Some would say yes, some would say no. It's a matter of opinion/viewpoint.
If you don't tax wealth transfers, when the rich man dies, his heirs will get it all tax-free.
In theory, taxation is in large part about society deciding what the "best" way (which may or may not be the "most equitable" way) to divvy up the cost of running a government among the people.
In practice, it's frequently about those in power protecting their own interests while not seeming to be so unfair that they ruin their reputation and/or cause a rebellion from the masses. But that's a topic for another day.
As written, the phrase "everyone will get cancer unless they die of something else first" is a tautology and therefore meaningless.
However, your point that for some people, they would probably have to live a long long long time (think, thousands of years or longer) before they got cancer and (naively) assuming there was no further advances in medicine most assuredly would die of something else first is well taken.
When you resign in Klingon it only works if you go all-out Klingon: Either kill your opponent or kill yourself.... unless... Should Sen. Kay Hagan be worried?
I don't care so much about 8 and I won't until 7 nears end of life. But I don't want XP machines on the Internet for "general use" (e.g. web browsing, etc.) or directly connected to the Internet at all (no hardware firewall) as they are much more likely to be compromised in a way that can hurt me or the general public than supported operating systems.
Yes, yes, yes. If they'd spend their money on this instead of invading American's privacy, maybe they'd be a few months further down the road than they are.
Why should they trust those memory sticks you are giving them? After all, you might have gotten them from a manufacturer whose factory was hacked and the USB drives are silently corrupting data in random ways.
posted from secret volcano lair
Now I know you are either crazy or crazy like a fox. Since only a relatively small part of the Earth's surface has placed where you could put a volcano lair, I'm a lot closer to knowing where you are. Or maybe you are lying and crazy like a fox, in which case I say "well played, sir, well played."
If by chance you aren't on the Earth yet you still managed to pot to Slashdot, I say "VERY well played, sir, VERY well played."
Were these tech debacles or management debacles? Healthcare.gov was a management debacle. As for the rest, I'm not familiar enough to judge but most sound like management debacles as well.
A tech debacle is when the technical people have everything they need to do their jobs and they screw it up.
A high-resolution, 3-D, semi-transparent image that appears to take up most or all of your field of view and which is "far enough away" that people over 40 don't get headaches trying to focus on it is going to be pretty universal in the 10 to 20 years from now time frame.
Yes, there will be other displays, in fact, such displays will be ubiquitous. Most real-world tools, appliances, gadgets, etc. will have some kind of status display and many, especially those in public places, will have advertising displays. Office walls and windows (inside and outside) will be displays. But the most common display of whatever replaces the PC/phone/tablet will be something like what I describe above.
Ultimately, unless society rejects the idea for privacy or other reasons, most people in developed countries will have a direct connection from their brain to "the network," whatever that turns out to be. Personally, I find the idea scary but probably inevitable (assuming of course civilization doesn't take a major technological step backward or die off altogether. One big asteroid hit or all-out nuclear war and it's "game over, man.").
Snowden is a hero for revealing secrets that need revealing. He is a villain for revealing more than necessary. He is brave for essentially throwing his life away. He is a coward for not being willing to accept all of the legal consequences for his actions.*
With a treasure trove of tell-alls as big as Snowden's allegedly is, I doubt he's had the time to sort out the things our government is doing that are generally likely to be considered by Americans and American allies as immoral or against our own Constitution from those that aren't.
There is no doubt that American owes Snowden a debt of gratitude for shining light on activities which are likely to have at least 4 of 9 Supreme Court justices ruling them unconstitutional, should a relevant case ever reach their docket, as well as many other activities which, while clearly constitutional, are generally regarded as things a civilized government simply should not do, at least not outside of times of war, invasion, or rebellion.
However, the odds are high that not all of the secrets he leaked are those kinds of secrets.
To the extent that Snowden is leaking secrets of things that Americans would NOT generally consider immoral or unconstitutional AND, (for things that affect other countries or their citizens) things which those other countries not only find immoral but which they themselves do not do, Snowden should've kept his mouth shut.
Perhaps the United States Government should take a page from the Doctor Who television episode "Tooth and Claw"** and give Snowden a medal for releasing the secrets that show American was acting immorally and/or unconstitutionally, then charge him with treason for releasing secrets whose release expose anything that needed the disinfecting light of sunshine cast upon it. Maybe they will let him wear his medal and write his (classified, until Washington says otherwise) memoirs while he serves his time in Club Fed???
*The hallmark of an honorable person engaged in civil disobedience (or insurrection, treason, etc.) is their willingness to accept the full legal consequences to themselves for any actions they take on behalf of "the people."
**In the episode, Queen Victoria knights The Doctor and his companion then banishes them both. This episode is also part of the back-story for the spin-off series Torchwood.
Account based systems are a privacy nightmare. With an account based system, you can basically track every pass user everywhere all the time.
That depends. If it's post-paid or renewing-prepaid account, you are correct.
If it's a prepaid account that is purchased anonymously and not re-loaded when the money runs out or the number of pre-paid days expire, then the privacy issues are much less. All you can do then is say when the card was used. Unless you have something else to go by, such video camera coverage of one of the times it was used, you can't say who the card belongs to.
If I am not going to use cash, I'd prefer to use a token that is cash-like: * is transferable like cash * can't be tied back to me * isn't widely counterfeited, so I'm not subsidizing freeloaders * is convenient to use
Except may be for the counterfeiting part, subway tokens and prepaid fair passes generally meet this requirement.
I don't have any inherent objection to something that operates like a prepaid debit card, as long as I can purchase it anonymously without any additional fees beyond the fair itself. Just don't be surprised if I buy a new card every few weeks instead of reloading the existing one.
If I attack something to test how emergency responders will respond so I can make sure my 2nd attack succeeds, I may find my efforts wasted as the emergency responders may do a post-mortem analysis (no pun intended) and change how they will respond the next time. This change-of-response may or may not be communicated to the public.
Slashdot Mirror
Doing this would mean diverting funds from their other evil plans^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hinvestment opportunities.
"[E]conomies always depend on you dealing with other people, some of whom will benefit from screwing you"
Am I the only one who read that as the car makers are somehow not letting the nav system know the driver's location?
No.
The "value of money" curve varies by individual, and I'm not convinced that on average it's logarithmic.
For some people, the value becomes "essentially zero" after a certain point. You know who these people are because after they die (or sometimes, before, but not voluntarily) you will find out that starting at some point in their lifetime they realized they "had enough money to last a lifetime" and quietly gave away all future net earnings, and/or they made a point of "living at a certain income level, and quietly giving away the rest."
Taxation also depends on what is being taxed.
Are you taxing assets (e.g. real estate tax, Florida's intangible property tax, etc.)?
Are you taxing wages aka "earned income?"
Are you taxing unearned income, including realized net capital gains?
Are you taxing "wealth transfers" like gifts and inheritances?
As long as you aren't taxing assets, someone with more money than he can spend in a lifetime will pay essentially the same taxes as someone else with the same lifestyle but fewer assets, provided his assets are all non-earning and non-growth (e.g. "cash") Both pay sales taxes, auto taxes, etc. Is that fair? Some would say yes, some would say no. It's a matter of opinion/viewpoint.
If you don't tax wealth transfers, when the rich man dies, his heirs will get it all tax-free.
In theory, taxation is in large part about society deciding what the "best" way (which may or may not be the "most equitable" way) to divvy up the cost of running a government among the people.
In practice, it's frequently about those in power protecting their own interests while not seeming to be so unfair that they ruin their reputation and/or cause a rebellion from the masses. But that's a topic for another day.
As written, the phrase "everyone will get cancer unless they die of something else first" is a tautology and therefore meaningless.
However, your point that for some people, they would probably have to live a long long long time (think, thousands of years or longer) before they got cancer and (naively) assuming there was no further advances in medicine most assuredly would die of something else first is well taken.
... dying of something else first.
At least that's how I read the article.
When you resign in Klingon it only works if you go all-out Klingon: Either kill your opponent or kill yourself. ... unless ...
Should Sen. Kay Hagan be worried?
I think it's from April 1, 2014.
I don't care so much about 8 and I won't until 7 nears end of life. But I don't want XP machines on the Internet for "general use" (e.g. web browsing, etc.) or directly connected to the Internet at all (no hardware firewall) as they are much more likely to be compromised in a way that can hurt me or the general public than supported operating systems.
Yes, yes, yes. If they'd spend their money on this instead of invading American's privacy, maybe they'd be a few months further down the road than they are.
Why should they trust those memory sticks you are giving them? After all, you might have gotten them from a manufacturer whose factory was hacked and the USB drives are silently corrupting data in random ways.
posted from secret volcano lair
Now I know you are either crazy or crazy like a fox. Since only a relatively small part of the Earth's surface has placed where you could put a volcano lair, I'm a lot closer to knowing where you are. Or maybe you are lying and crazy like a fox, in which case I say "well played, sir, well played."
If by chance you aren't on the Earth yet you still managed to pot to Slashdot, I say "VERY well played, sir, VERY well played."
Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree, because it teaches us that no matter what our stage in life, we can still be of value to others.
is a failure to pick up dog waste or causing damage to 'any crops, turfs, plants, roots or trees'"
What if I can't pick up after Fido without damaging a crop, turf, plant, root, or tree?
I guess I'm screwed.
Thanks a lot, Fido. No Scooby-Snacks for you!
Were these tech debacles or management debacles? Healthcare.gov was a management debacle. As for the rest, I'm not familiar enough to judge but most sound like management debacles as well.
A tech debacle is when the technical people have everything they need to do their jobs and they screw it up.
... one less item on your bucket list.
My question is: Who paid for this, and why? Unless it was his personal money, it seems like a waste of money.
A high-resolution, 3-D, semi-transparent image that appears to take up most or all of your field of view and which is "far enough away" that people over 40 don't get headaches trying to focus on it is going to be pretty universal in the 10 to 20 years from now time frame.
Yes, there will be other displays, in fact, such displays will be ubiquitous. Most real-world tools, appliances, gadgets, etc. will have some kind of status display and many, especially those in public places, will have advertising displays. Office walls and windows (inside and outside) will be displays. But the most common display of whatever replaces the PC/phone/tablet will be something like what I describe above.
Ultimately, unless society rejects the idea for privacy or other reasons, most people in developed countries will have a direct connection from their brain to "the network," whatever that turns out to be. Personally, I find the idea scary but probably inevitable (assuming of course civilization doesn't take a major technological step backward or die off altogether. One big asteroid hit or all-out nuclear war and it's "game over, man.").
30 years from now, who will remember these? Spaghetti Tree (1957) will live on for generations.
Snowden is a hero for revealing secrets that need revealing. He is a villain for revealing more than necessary. He is brave for essentially throwing his life away. He is a coward for not being willing to accept all of the legal consequences for his actions.*
With a treasure trove of tell-alls as big as Snowden's allegedly is, I doubt he's had the time to sort out the things our government is doing that are generally likely to be considered by Americans and American allies as immoral or against our own Constitution from those that aren't.
There is no doubt that American owes Snowden a debt of gratitude for shining light on activities which are likely to have at least 4 of 9 Supreme Court justices ruling them unconstitutional, should a relevant case ever reach their docket, as well as many other activities which, while clearly constitutional, are generally regarded as things a civilized government simply should not do, at least not outside of times of war, invasion, or rebellion.
However, the odds are high that not all of the secrets he leaked are those kinds of secrets.
To the extent that Snowden is leaking secrets of things that Americans would NOT generally consider immoral or unconstitutional AND, (for things that affect other countries or their citizens) things which those other countries not only find immoral but which they themselves do not do, Snowden should've kept his mouth shut.
Perhaps the United States Government should take a page from the Doctor Who television episode "Tooth and Claw"** and give Snowden a medal for releasing the secrets that show American was acting immorally and/or unconstitutionally, then charge him with treason for releasing secrets whose release expose anything that needed the disinfecting light of sunshine cast upon it. Maybe they will let him wear his medal and write his (classified, until Washington says otherwise) memoirs while he serves his time in Club Fed???
*The hallmark of an honorable person engaged in civil disobedience (or insurrection, treason, etc.) is their willingness to accept the full legal consequences to themselves for any actions they take on behalf of "the people."
**In the episode, Queen Victoria knights The Doctor and his companion then banishes them both. This episode is also part of the back-story for the spin-off series Torchwood.
And this is why stored-value cards should have MAX_VALUE and EXPIRATION_DATE hard-coded into them.
always allow, but record the transactions, and go back later to reconcile.
In other words, treat it like we used to treat credit cards back before instant verification.
Anyone else remember signing a multi-part credit card form and having the clerk run it through the "ker-chunker"?
Account based systems are a privacy nightmare.
With an account based system, you can basically track every pass user everywhere all the time.
That depends. If it's post-paid or renewing-prepaid account, you are correct.
If it's a prepaid account that is purchased anonymously and not re-loaded when the money runs out or the number of pre-paid days expire, then the privacy issues are much less. All you can do then is say when the card was used. Unless you have something else to go by, such video camera coverage of one of the times it was used, you can't say who the card belongs to.
If I am not going to use cash, I'd prefer to use a token that is cash-like:
* is transferable like cash
* can't be tied back to me
* isn't widely counterfeited, so I'm not subsidizing freeloaders
* is convenient to use
Except may be for the counterfeiting part, subway tokens and prepaid fair passes generally meet this requirement.
I don't have any inherent objection to something that operates like a prepaid debit card, as long as I can purchase it anonymously without any additional fees beyond the fair itself. Just don't be surprised if I buy a new card every few weeks instead of reloading the existing one.
That's spelled s-l-a-s-h-v-e-r-t-i-s-e-m-e-n-t you insensitive clod!
If I attack something to test how emergency responders will respond so I can make sure my 2nd attack succeeds, I may find my efforts wasted as the emergency responders may do a post-mortem analysis (no pun intended) and change how they will respond the next time. This change-of-response may or may not be communicated to the public.