Shopping at a retail store like Target, Sears, or Home Depot isn't really "keeping it local".
Right. The human beings in the store aren't local. The sales taxes aren't local. The property taxes aren't local. You're right. That's a *great* justification for not giving a shit about your local community. You should pat yourself on the back for being such a wonderful person.
That won't work. Even today, when computers could tell you what the taxes are, keeping track of how much tax to collect, and all the different reporting and payment requirements, would only be possible for giant corporations. Small companies would be out of business.
Yeah, that would be hard. It would require some sort of "automation" using some sort of "adding machine". Jeez, I wonder where online retailers would get such a device...
I'm either going to have to pay a 3rd-party to deal with all the states' and cities' tax laws or go out of business.
So what? Do small online retailers provide some kind of public good that we should waive basic tax collection responsibilities for them? If somebody wants to do business across the entire country, there's a cost to that. It's still about a jillion times cheaper than opening physical stores all across the country.
The infrastructure to collect state and local taxes for all 50 states is beyond small retailers
I agree! How would online retailers keep track of long lists of numbers and do arithmetic? It would take some kind of mechanical "computer" of some sort that could handle a complex procedure like that. That is quite a burden to be placed on online retailers, indeed.
Anonymity systems like Tor, Freenet, and I2P exist and are pretty successful in case you haven't noticed.
No, they're not. A bit of obfuscation, but they in no way create anonymity. You're either kidding yourself or woefully misinformed if you think they do. Every packet of information on the Net can be traced from its source to its destination. That's how the system is designed. Tor and Freenet and I2P are about as effective as a baby hiding by playing "peek-a-boo".
I never understood why people think it's a good idea to enter (or even worse, store) credit card info in a phone. That's the height of stupidity, in my opinion.
It's pretty hard to transfer paper money over the world anonymously. If you do it electronically, you are traced. If you do it in person, it's not cheap or convenient.
I don't normally respond to AC's, but you seem to be stupider than most. Transferring paper money in person is not cheap of convenient? Are you fucking kidding me? It may pose some difficulty to a person with no arms, but I fail to see the difficulty or the cost involved with handing another human being a few small pieces of paper.
Unless somebody is going to re-write IP and get the entire planet to implement it, it's a fool's errand to try to implement an anonymous system on an inherently non-anonymous network.
Boy, now that's some real convenience! Sign me up for this whole Bitcoin thing! An encrypted digital wallet in VM in a VM? That's SO MUCH EASIER than dealing with cash with all of the putting in the pocket and the removing from the pocket with the fingers.
I'm starting to think that Bitcoin is a collaboration of a lot of very brilliant performance artists attempting to see how bizarre and complicated they can make the relatively simple concept of "money".
Either that, or Bitcoin evangelists are just a bunch of morons.
But I'm optimistic, and I try to assume the best of people. So, I'm going to keep imagining all of you smart performance artists taking us all for a ride. Keep it up! It gets sillier every day!
very little trust remains in the US government, or in many others
Now that's just silly. You may not LIKE the government, or you may not trust them to do certain things well, but you'd have to be daft to not trust the government to be able to maintain a stable currency. If the US dollar collapses, everybody will have larger problems to worry about. If we're all living in a Mad Max world, imaginary crypto-currencies will be less than practical.
What's your point? It's kept going for 12 years. There's no version of Linux that I can think of that has been supported for anywhere near 12 years. This AC swapped out OS's, what, half a dozen times or more, on how many computers? What a tremendous waste of time (unless your hobby is installing OS's)!!
Books are important to a lot of people. I'd even say that the books that people read and internalize form a good bit of their personality, as well. The selection of books that a person has read says a lot about a particular person. It makes sense to me, at least, while people would want to keep their books.
I can't fit 500+ printed books in my pocket. For me, that's the big deal right there. I have limited physical storage space in my house, and I read about 2 books a week.
So, then either, you don't go back to your house more frequently than once every few weeks, or you can't physically carry one or two books at a time? Either situations is sad, and I'm sorry for you.
"This is just the latest example of how social media rants by government workers are causing problems for the workers — and the people they deal with.""
No, this is just the latest example of how people posting stupid shit online come back to bite them in the ass.
I'm still amazed that 20 years in, most people still have no idea how to act like rational, civil human beings online.
Tell them about cheap VPN services and how easy they are to set up. I even give people cheap flash drives I bought of eBay and loaded with a portable version of the Tor browser bundle.
By buying something off of eBay, you exposed more information then you could possibly hope to protect via a VPN and Tor.
Last I tried it, it necessarily slowed my Net connection down to essentially unusable because of an obvious lack of "exit nodes". Besides, all it does is add some very, very simple obfuscation to what you may be doing on the Net. It doesn't in any way provide any meaningful protection. The nature of TCP/IP precludes true anonymity. People pursuing anonymity through TCP/IP are the same kinds of people looking for perpetual motion machines.
Slashdot Mirror
I shopped around. No local computer shops. Only 2 places carried SATA cables. Best Buy, and Radio Shack. Both were $25.
Jesus, what kind of shithole do you live in that doesn't have local computer shops?
Shopping at a retail store like Target, Sears, or Home Depot isn't really "keeping it local".
Right. The human beings in the store aren't local. The sales taxes aren't local. The property taxes aren't local. You're right. That's a *great* justification for not giving a shit about your local community. You should pat yourself on the back for being such a wonderful person.
That won't work. Even today, when computers could tell you what the taxes are, keeping track of how much tax to collect, and all the different reporting and payment requirements, would only be possible for giant corporations. Small companies would be out of business.
Yeah, that would be hard. It would require some sort of "automation" using some sort of "adding machine". Jeez, I wonder where online retailers would get such a device...
I'm either going to have to pay a 3rd-party to deal with all the states' and cities' tax laws or go out of business.
So what? Do small online retailers provide some kind of public good that we should waive basic tax collection responsibilities for them? If somebody wants to do business across the entire country, there's a cost to that. It's still about a jillion times cheaper than opening physical stores all across the country.
The infrastructure to collect state and local taxes for all 50 states is beyond small retailers
I agree! How would online retailers keep track of long lists of numbers and do arithmetic? It would take some kind of mechanical "computer" of some sort that could handle a complex procedure like that. That is quite a burden to be placed on online retailers, indeed.
Anonymity systems like Tor, Freenet, and I2P exist and are pretty successful in case you haven't noticed.
No, they're not. A bit of obfuscation, but they in no way create anonymity. You're either kidding yourself or woefully misinformed if you think they do. Every packet of information on the Net can be traced from its source to its destination. That's how the system is designed. Tor and Freenet and I2P are about as effective as a baby hiding by playing "peek-a-boo".
I never understood why people think it's a good idea to enter (or even worse, store) credit card info in a phone. That's the height of stupidity, in my opinion.
It's pretty hard to transfer paper money over the world anonymously. If you do it electronically, you are traced. If you do it in person, it's not cheap or convenient.
I don't normally respond to AC's, but you seem to be stupider than most. Transferring paper money in person is not cheap of convenient? Are you fucking kidding me? It may pose some difficulty to a person with no arms, but I fail to see the difficulty or the cost involved with handing another human being a few small pieces of paper.
Are you kidding? Just swap bills with any random person.
Has nobody heard of KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid)?
Unless somebody is going to re-write IP and get the entire planet to implement it, it's a fool's errand to try to implement an anonymous system on an inherently non-anonymous network.
If you want anonymous, use cash.
Don't use banks (use credit unions). Don't use credit cards (use cash). Don't use Facebook. Don't use Google. Don't buy shit online. Don't buy cable TV.
Do that, and you're 90% of the way there, in my opinion.
Boy, now that's some real convenience! Sign me up for this whole Bitcoin thing! An encrypted digital wallet in VM in a VM? That's SO MUCH EASIER than dealing with cash with all of the putting in the pocket and the removing from the pocket with the fingers.
I'm starting to think that Bitcoin is a collaboration of a lot of very brilliant performance artists attempting to see how bizarre and complicated they can make the relatively simple concept of "money".
Either that, or Bitcoin evangelists are just a bunch of morons.
But I'm optimistic, and I try to assume the best of people. So, I'm going to keep imagining all of you smart performance artists taking us all for a ride. Keep it up! It gets sillier every day!
"Sheep Marketplace"? Hahaha!
I think that somebody could do very well with a site called "IWillStealYourBitCoins.com"
I reject that as complete liberal bullshit.
I reject your rejection.
How's THAT for an argument?
very little trust remains in the US government, or in many others
Now that's just silly. You may not LIKE the government, or you may not trust them to do certain things well, but you'd have to be daft to not trust the government to be able to maintain a stable currency. If the US dollar collapses, everybody will have larger problems to worry about. If we're all living in a Mad Max world, imaginary crypto-currencies will be less than practical.
What's your point? It's kept going for 12 years. There's no version of Linux that I can think of that has been supported for anywhere near 12 years. This AC swapped out OS's, what, half a dozen times or more, on how many computers? What a tremendous waste of time (unless your hobby is installing OS's)!!
Or, you could've saved everybody some time and just stayed with Windows XP, which is still working just fine to this day.
Invariably, the shit that is on sale on "Black Friday" is also shit that nobody really needs. I ain't buying anything on "Black Friday".
Books are important to a lot of people. I'd even say that the books that people read and internalize form a good bit of their personality, as well. The selection of books that a person has read says a lot about a particular person. It makes sense to me, at least, while people would want to keep their books.
I can't fit 500+ printed books in my pocket. For me, that's the big deal right there. I have limited physical storage space in my house, and I read about 2 books a week.
So, then either, you don't go back to your house more frequently than once every few weeks, or you can't physically carry one or two books at a time? Either situations is sad, and I'm sorry for you.
"This is just the latest example of how social media rants by government workers are causing problems for the workers — and the people they deal with.""
No, this is just the latest example of how people posting stupid shit online come back to bite them in the ass.
I'm still amazed that 20 years in, most people still have no idea how to act like rational, civil human beings online.
You clearly have never read a RFC. You should consider learning a bit before spouting off at the mouth.
Tell them about cheap VPN services and how easy they are to set up. I even give people cheap flash drives I bought of eBay and loaded with a portable version of the Tor browser bundle.
By buying something off of eBay, you exposed more information then you could possibly hope to protect via a VPN and Tor.
Ogame is old (but updated) and brutal. NO grinding, but you have to be available to play 24/7.
I honestly didn't know people still used Tor.
Last I tried it, it necessarily slowed my Net connection down to essentially unusable because of an obvious lack of "exit nodes". Besides, all it does is add some very, very simple obfuscation to what you may be doing on the Net. It doesn't in any way provide any meaningful protection. The nature of TCP/IP precludes true anonymity. People pursuing anonymity through TCP/IP are the same kinds of people looking for perpetual motion machines.