Asking the price of any military purpose automatically makes you a traitor and an America-hater. Please turn yourself in at your local FBI office. We have no place in this country for people who question the economics, ethics, or efficacy, of any part of the military-industrial complex.
"AFAIK, interstate sales taxes are unconstitutional."
The Constitution changes. The Internet didn't exist 200 years ago. They couldn't exactly imagine this would happen. I think the Constitution should be modified, if need be, to allow for interstate taxation.
"By levying a sales tax on every online ma-and-pa shop you will be placing additional burdens on small businesses --and many will close their doors because of it."
More are closing and many have already closed due to people taking advantage of the tax loophole and buying online. In my town alone, we've lost many, many businesses already. Making the existing ones buy a Quickbooks "sales tax" subscription to handle sales tax payments isn't going to break anybody.
"I would, if the locals carried the CDs, DVDs, books, magazines, clothing, and food items I want. But they don't. Fuck 'em."
They don't because every short-sighted, self-centered moron started buying everything online.
"One of the reasons that out of state merchants haven't always had to collect sales tax is to prevent a small shop from having to find the rates and file a return in every distant state where they do a single transaction."
In reality, compared with the rest of the taxes they have to figure out, it wouldn't be that hard. That's why we have computers. As it is, it's nearly impossible to pay employees without a computer to calculate all of the various taxes.
"bullshit, amazon has to ship as well, and whether the cost is integrated into the product with "free" shipping (no such thing) or if it's an added cost. they usually balance out so online orders pay as much in shipping as they save in taxes."
Wrong. Amazon doesn't need to rent retail space at $30/sq ft. Amazon doesn't need to hire friendly, English-speaking clerks. Amazon hired anybody with a pulse and puts warehouses in the middle of nowhere. There's a lot more to it than shipping and sales tax. That's all you see, as a consumer, but there's much, much more that goes into it.
"If I purchase something online, then the tax, if I am required to pay it, should go to that small city in Pennsylvania where their warehouse is located, not my local municipal. "
And what is the logical inevitability here? A few very wealthy municipalities in the middle of nowhere where the warehouses are, and your local public services will be non-existent.
Individuals are too selfish to think about the repercussions of this, and as a result, the government needs to step in to remedy the problem.
I wouldn't mind buying games online except that if the hard drive in my PS3 crashes, I lose my games. Sony says that they are not responsible if a hard drive crashes and games are lost. It's up to the user to back up the hard drive on their own. Well, fuck that. I'll just buy the discs and not worry about backups.
If the SQL database is designed correctly, then all you're talking about is taking on lots of different front-ends to it. A SQL database really should remain the backbone of a project like this. You can connect any kind of front end to it that you want, but there's not a better alternative than a plain 'ol database in the back end.
The real problem isn't trading frequency. It's the basis for the market. Since most stocks have stopped paying significant dividends, there's very little basis for any one stock's value. The stock market today is solely based on betting whether an individual can accurately predict what the rest of the market will do in the future. Stock prices don't have anything to do, whatsoever, with the inherent financial value of the underlying company.
If I'm going to gamble, I'm going to Vegas. At least there, you get free drinks as you piss your money away.
The market is always awash with really, really great deals on refurbished machines. In 10+ years, I have never needed to buy a new PC, and have never spent more than $200 on a PC, and $500 on a server. I let other people (suckers) take the depreciation hit on new PC's just like I do with automobiles. I expect that we'll be able to easily buy PCs with PCI in them for at least another 5+ years. As somebody who still uses parallel ports, serial ports, and IDE drives, I've never had a problem finding great deals on fully functional hardware.
"You casually ignore the attrocities commited around the world, many of which we have military might in place to help prevent."
You have tasted the Kool-Aid and it is good.
We have military might in place to make money for a few people. The US government doesn't give a flying shit about atrocities, as is evidenced by both the people we kill and the people we don't kill.
Huh? Really? If I ever run into somebody who owns or plays a Nintendo device again, I'll let them know. For now, it seems that the only thing that Nintendo is destroying is closet space of the millions of Americans who have Wiis.
I don't know if I'd call programming "science". As a former programmer, I'd call it a skilled trade. There's still plenty of real computer science going on in the US, from what I can tell.
Gates is also a *very* smart guy, and he's one of the greatest philanthropists in the world today. Your one-dimensional depiction of him isn't all that accurate.
Remote desktop stuff is used to control headless and remote servers. I use it daily. I don't understand what Chrome's version offers over Windows' native solution, though.
Apple's market for the i* just got destroyed. The risk that Apple took by partnering with AT&T has finally come and bit them in the ass. Dumb move, Apple.
Manufacturing is not coming back to the US as long as consumers only care about their own wallet. Things in the US cost more to manufacture, and until people think about anything other than their wallet when purchasing stuff like electronic gizmos, they'll always be made by the cheapest bidder.
"Small businesses are just that, small and often don't bother having an online presence."
Small businesses that don't have an online presence aren't going to be in business much longer. It's *considerably* more expensive to be in the phone book than it is to have a simple web site. Spending money on phone books in this day & age is simply a bad financial decision.
We saw it with the increase in text messaging rates.
That's simply not true, though. I've got a Sprint plan that gives me truly unlimited everything. It ain't cheap, but it's an option. Not every company and every plan started screwing customers on text messages. There's obviously a demand (from people like me) who want unlimited everything and pay for it.
Slashdot Mirror
Asking the price of any military purpose automatically makes you a traitor and an America-hater. Please turn yourself in at your local FBI office. We have no place in this country for people who question the economics, ethics, or efficacy, of any part of the military-industrial complex.
"I don't know where you live, but here there are still plenty of local stores."
How many bookstores do you have in your area?
"AFAIK, interstate sales taxes are unconstitutional." The Constitution changes. The Internet didn't exist 200 years ago. They couldn't exactly imagine this would happen. I think the Constitution should be modified, if need be, to allow for interstate taxation.
"By levying a sales tax on every online ma-and-pa shop you will be placing additional burdens on small businesses --and many will close their doors because of it." More are closing and many have already closed due to people taking advantage of the tax loophole and buying online. In my town alone, we've lost many, many businesses already. Making the existing ones buy a Quickbooks "sales tax" subscription to handle sales tax payments isn't going to break anybody.
"I would, if the locals carried the CDs, DVDs, books, magazines, clothing, and food items I want. But they don't. Fuck 'em." They don't because every short-sighted, self-centered moron started buying everything online.
"One of the reasons that out of state merchants haven't always had to collect sales tax is to prevent a small shop from having to find the rates and file a return in every distant state where they do a single transaction." In reality, compared with the rest of the taxes they have to figure out, it wouldn't be that hard. That's why we have computers. As it is, it's nearly impossible to pay employees without a computer to calculate all of the various taxes.
"bullshit, amazon has to ship as well, and whether the cost is integrated into the product with "free" shipping (no such thing) or if it's an added cost. they usually balance out so online orders pay as much in shipping as they save in taxes." Wrong. Amazon doesn't need to rent retail space at $30/sq ft. Amazon doesn't need to hire friendly, English-speaking clerks. Amazon hired anybody with a pulse and puts warehouses in the middle of nowhere. There's a lot more to it than shipping and sales tax. That's all you see, as a consumer, but there's much, much more that goes into it.
"If I purchase something online, then the tax, if I am required to pay it, should go to that small city in Pennsylvania where their warehouse is located, not my local municipal. " And what is the logical inevitability here? A few very wealthy municipalities in the middle of nowhere where the warehouses are, and your local public services will be non-existent. Individuals are too selfish to think about the repercussions of this, and as a result, the government needs to step in to remedy the problem.
Good. Buying online results in externalities which most people are simply too selfish to care about. I'm all in favor of closing this loophole.
I wouldn't mind buying games online except that if the hard drive in my PS3 crashes, I lose my games. Sony says that they are not responsible if a hard drive crashes and games are lost. It's up to the user to back up the hard drive on their own. Well, fuck that. I'll just buy the discs and not worry about backups.
If you don't buy Erich's ideas, what's your explanation for the Wheel of Ezekiel? The way I see it, there's three or four possibilities:
#5: "the Wheel of Ezekiel" is fiction.
I vote for #5.
"tacking on lots of different front ends"
If the SQL database is designed correctly, then all you're talking about is taking on lots of different front-ends to it. A SQL database really should remain the backbone of a project like this. You can connect any kind of front end to it that you want, but there's not a better alternative than a plain 'ol database in the back end.
The real problem isn't trading frequency. It's the basis for the market. Since most stocks have stopped paying significant dividends, there's very little basis for any one stock's value. The stock market today is solely based on betting whether an individual can accurately predict what the rest of the market will do in the future. Stock prices don't have anything to do, whatsoever, with the inherent financial value of the underlying company.
If I'm going to gamble, I'm going to Vegas. At least there, you get free drinks as you piss your money away.
The market is always awash with really, really great deals on refurbished machines. In 10+ years, I have never needed to buy a new PC, and have never spent more than $200 on a PC, and $500 on a server. I let other people (suckers) take the depreciation hit on new PC's just like I do with automobiles. I expect that we'll be able to easily buy PCs with PCI in them for at least another 5+ years. As somebody who still uses parallel ports, serial ports, and IDE drives, I've never had a problem finding great deals on fully functional hardware.
"You casually ignore the attrocities commited around the world, many of which we have military might in place to help prevent."
You have tasted the Kool-Aid and it is good.
We have military might in place to make money for a few people. The US government doesn't give a flying shit about atrocities, as is evidenced by both the people we kill and the people we don't kill.
even on the highest difficulty I rarely find myself challenged
Sir, may I suggest, that YOU are what's hardcore.
Huh? Really? If I ever run into somebody who owns or plays a Nintendo device again, I'll let them know. For now, it seems that the only thing that Nintendo is destroying is closet space of the millions of Americans who have Wiis.
I don't know if I'd call programming "science". As a former programmer, I'd call it a skilled trade. There's still plenty of real computer science going on in the US, from what I can tell.
Gates was a businessman who made great sales.
Gates is also a *very* smart guy, and he's one of the greatest philanthropists in the world today. Your one-dimensional depiction of him isn't all that accurate.
Remote desktop stuff is used to control headless and remote servers. I use it daily. I don't understand what Chrome's version offers over Windows' native solution, though.
Apple's market for the i* just got destroyed. The risk that Apple took by partnering with AT&T has finally come and bit them in the ass. Dumb move, Apple.
Manufacturing is not coming back to the US as long as consumers only care about their own wallet. Things in the US cost more to manufacture, and until people think about anything other than their wallet when purchasing stuff like electronic gizmos, they'll always be made by the cheapest bidder.
"Small businesses are just that, small and often don't bother having an online presence."
Small businesses that don't have an online presence aren't going to be in business much longer. It's *considerably* more expensive to be in the phone book than it is to have a simple web site. Spending money on phone books in this day & age is simply a bad financial decision.
We saw it with the increase in text messaging rates.
That's simply not true, though. I've got a Sprint plan that gives me truly unlimited everything. It ain't cheap, but it's an option. Not every company and every plan started screwing customers on text messages. There's obviously a demand (from people like me) who want unlimited everything and pay for it.