It isn't any different than if you have a legal gun and then conceal it when you go out. The gun stopped being legal once you did that. Here, the point is that he knew what was doing wrong and he punctuated it by encrypting it making it, arguably, a de facto admission of guilt.
As others have pointed, the article is about stating up front that the price includes the GST. Apparently this is a problem down under.
As to why a government would charge a sales tax on a used item, it's simple, because they can. No politician has ever met a tax they didn't like. You already pay tax in most jurisdictions on used items, like cars etc.
Many runs have already been made at net taxes, sales tax on auctions is within that cachement. Money will be made on the net, and the taxman will cometh.
The magic, uh, yeah, that's it. So we all know that the magic leeched out a long time ago. That people aren't going to not see the movie on the big screen, and that Lucas will need no tag days to buy gas for his Hummer.
Magic, yeah, I see. What I see is that Lucas, after criticism of the last few movies, followed the modern dictate that sci-fi must be dark, brooding, and violent.
Magic was last seen trying to catch a bus out of Hollywood.
In the Excited States, you has freedom. Freedom to be tagged like a bass with a national ID card, freedom to pee in a bottle because your boss tells you to, freedom to have bars on your windows because you need them, freedom to pay high medical insurance fees to corporations.
I could go on, but you get the point.
I doubt that, especially with large corporations that have a lot to lose by being caught. Purchases of such software are usually a write-off against taxes as a business expense.
Are some doing it? I wouldn't doubt it, but probably not in significant numbers. A few countries may turn a blind eye, but not many. Even the Chinese have a vested interest in at least appearing responsible in areas of trade which is why I suspect, they have put so much effort into Open Office.
True, but it is an excellent vehicle for them to sell their programming expertise. This item may never be commercially implemented, but it will garner them a lot of attention.
All software (and hardware) attempts to create some kind of lockable copy protection are doomed for no other reason than for every overworked, underpaid programmer working on security for a company, there are hundreds of people sitting in basements hacking away at breaking codes for fun.
Most of them are not of professional programming ability, but by sheer numbers one will stumble into a solution.
This is a common theme for music and film dowloads, but in software, not as likely I would think. I know of many who have ms office at home for example, but they only have it because they got it from someone.
They never use it, and most of these people don't know how to begin to use Access for example. The chances that these people would actually buy such programs are remote.
As taking down napster spawned development and the explosion of P2P programs like WinMX, and the Gnutella variants, the taking down of bteftnet etc will lead to faster and more anonymous bittorrent and other programs. If anything, you'd think the MPAA would have learned something from watching the RIAA.
If they would smart, the would watch the BBC download service and develop their own.
Then again, if they were smart they would have realized they were just going to make things harder for themselves by taking down the sites prematurely.
Apple's biggest flop has less to do with these products and more to do with their lack of service and support of those products. This is probably the biggest reason Apple flopped on the business machine end of things. They orphaned, most especially, the Apple Lisa. While the Mac that replaced it may have been a superior product, the bad taste left in the mouths of executives who bought into the Lisa program was too much. Business people like reliability and continuity, which is why Gates and MS made hay back in the day. MS may be a bloated tanker now, but in the early 80's it was a nimble group of techies fighting the good fight against IBM. And they gave excellent service, even to Apple users for whom they made lots of software.
Apple didn't provide that service. That was the biggest difference. The cost difference between early PC's and Macs wasn't that big. When the diverse configurabilty of the PC came into play in the late 80's, that was the death knell in terms of the greater business market.
Had Apple hand-held business in the early days, the computing world really might have been different indeed.
This reminds me entirely of napster and lokitorrent. It changed nothing. While annoying, this is as dumb as shooting one guy out of 1000 charging over a hill and declaring victory.
He probably is right in that the iPod probably will vanish down the road. I think that's reasonable and I don't believe Apple ever expected it would last forever as a product line. Who's to say that the iPod won't morph into the iPhone and have music and telephony.
Will Windows Mobile 5.0 be the thing. MS's track record in the mobile market (see Windows CE) does not make one optimistic.
Remember though, we diss Mr. Bill because he HAS in fact steamrolled everyone else (with, in many people's opinions, inferior product). Like him and his products or not, he is a formidable competitor.
I am aware of The Who album of the same name, but when I wrote I didn't intentionally use the subject line as a reference to it. For the record, "alright" means the same thing as all right. Look it up! Read a book knucklehead!
Really, there are kids who can code. Most, however, will use the computer for entertainment. Not everyone can be a rocket scientist. It is probably viewed as most distressing on a site like slashdot because for the most part, this is a computing-centric group. We want to see "our kind" doing what we're good at. Things like programming apps, writing innovative code and not getting laid. Someone has to go to the future when we are old and our code is creaky.
I think though, this is no different than the notion that not all kids are good at math. A lot aren't, but you don't get quite the same reaction when scores are released show US kids faltering there. We're used to that now, but computing was supposed to be "our game".
As far as the rest of the world catching up, there is no stopping that. Will the US dry up as a source of good code? Unlikely, but expect to see some very sharp stuff coming out in the rest of the world. Don't be threatened by it. Frankly, it is getting wearisome to see that every time another nation puts up something great, the US reaction is peppered with a goodly amount of paranoia.
Sure, they're picking our packets, but you guys are the ones who will soon need a national ID RFID card soon to buy, sell, trade, and restrict your movements.
Every country regulates their phone system. Using the internet to bypass regulations governing the phone system wasn't going to last. If people want unregulated phone-type service, they can use their computer with a headset and mike. Why regulate? Because in modern life, in our hemisphere, like it or not, phone service is an essential service.
Bad news too, the unregulated internet is on borrowed time. It's already happening.
Yeah, I see cats lying with dogs, I see healthy fast food, I see dead people!
Pardon me on the dead people thing. A friend informs me that Orrin Hatch is in fact alive, and only appears to be dead.
I get the distinct impression that these actions are probably what bin Laden was hoping for when the planes went into the buildings. The erosion of democracy, fueled by fear, and driven into the arms of the police state.
Redefine science. How? Science is the process of theorizing, investigating, analyzing, testing and then concluding. That is science. The rest are bodies of knowledge devoted to subject areas of the natural world. Science needs no further definition.
What the "creationists" are postulating falls under catechism which is instruction in the elements of religion, specifically Christian, through question and answer.
If the creationists want to ensure their children are taught creation beliefs in public schools, they should have the option of having a catechism class where they could debate such things among themselves as I am sure that being exposed to scientific discoveries (not just in terms of evolution) causes the devout some consternation. The pressure on their beliefs is apt to increase as science is an expanding body of knowledge whereas religious beliefs are based on a static body of knowledge.
Ultimately I see confrontations such as this increasing rather than decreasing as science is constantly getting better tools for its task whereas religion only has the benefit of charismatic orators etc (and very few of those). No wonder they feel under siege and so grasping of opportunities, real and fabricated.
Creationism, in whatever guise they present it, can never be science so long as its proponents cling to a closed body of knowledge and can only answer with "the bible says so". Perhaps they need to believe that a supreme being was involved in the origin of things as they cannot grasp the notion that sometimes, things do happen without intervention.
It is only controversial in that these groups are trying to push a particular agenda that is based on a belief system, not fact. In truth, evolution is a theory in name only. We know and observe that evolution occurs, but some of the mechanisms are misunderstood.
When it comes down to it though, these people are building a case on an unassailable position based on faith. This allows them to proceed in spite of physical evidence to the contrary, indeed perhaps, because of it.
In the end, as time goes on, evolutionary mechanisms become better understood and evidence mounts. On the other side of the coin, all you get are the same hackneyed claims with a new set of clothes, in this case "intelligent design". It doesn't advance because there can be no development without an increase in the body of knowledge. In the biblical based body of knowledge, it is "all there in the bible". There is nothing new, only wrangling over who's interpretation is the "correct one".
To make the claim that dressing an old thought up in a new set of clothes is science is just illogical. To give more than a basic amount of human respect to their beliefs is just dumb. If science has a problem here it is in trying to reason with the illogical. Always a poor proposition.
That said, if the creationists may pull their children from class if evolution is discussed, can a person who rejects creation mythologies pull their kids from that portion of the class?
This is the same as the guy who was selling acreage on the moon. It was ruled illegal and he got fined. Ultimately, you cannot sell what you do not own.
Slashdot Mirror
It isn't any different than if you have a legal gun and then conceal it when you go out. The gun stopped being legal once you did that. Here, the point is that he knew what was doing wrong and he punctuated it by encrypting it making it, arguably, a de facto admission of guilt.
As others have pointed, the article is about stating up front that the price includes the GST. Apparently this is a problem down under.
As to why a government would charge a sales tax on a used item, it's simple, because they can. No politician has ever met a tax they didn't like. You already pay tax in most jurisdictions on used items, like cars etc.
Many runs have already been made at net taxes, sales tax on auctions is within that cachement. Money will be made on the net, and the taxman will cometh.
The magic, uh, yeah, that's it. So we all know that the magic leeched out a long time ago. That people aren't going to not see the movie on the big screen, and that Lucas will need no tag days to buy gas for his Hummer.
Magic, yeah, I see. What I see is that Lucas, after criticism of the last few movies, followed the modern dictate that sci-fi must be dark, brooding, and violent.
Magic was last seen trying to catch a bus out of Hollywood.
In the Excited States, you has freedom. Freedom to be tagged like a bass with a national ID card, freedom to pee in a bottle because your boss tells you to, freedom to have bars on your windows because you need them, freedom to pay high medical insurance fees to corporations. I could go on, but you get the point.
They can't. Lobbying is restricted in Canada. It isn't the Excited States.
I doubt that, especially with large corporations that have a lot to lose by being caught. Purchases of such software are usually a write-off against taxes as a business expense. Are some doing it? I wouldn't doubt it, but probably not in significant numbers. A few countries may turn a blind eye, but not many. Even the Chinese have a vested interest in at least appearing responsible in areas of trade which is why I suspect, they have put so much effort into Open Office.
True, but it is an excellent vehicle for them to sell their programming expertise. This item may never be commercially implemented, but it will garner them a lot of attention. All software (and hardware) attempts to create some kind of lockable copy protection are doomed for no other reason than for every overworked, underpaid programmer working on security for a company, there are hundreds of people sitting in basements hacking away at breaking codes for fun. Most of them are not of professional programming ability, but by sheer numbers one will stumble into a solution.
This is a common theme for music and film dowloads, but in software, not as likely I would think. I know of many who have ms office at home for example, but they only have it because they got it from someone.
They never use it, and most of these people don't know how to begin to use Access for example. The chances that these people would actually buy such programs are remote.
As taking down napster spawned development and the explosion of P2P programs like WinMX, and the Gnutella variants, the taking down of bteftnet etc will lead to faster and more anonymous bittorrent and other programs. If anything, you'd think the MPAA would have learned something from watching the RIAA.
If they would smart, the would watch the BBC download service and develop their own.
Then again, if they were smart they would have realized they were just going to make things harder for themselves by taking down the sites prematurely.
Apple's biggest flop has less to do with these products and more to do with their lack of service and support of those products. This is probably the biggest reason Apple flopped on the business machine end of things. They orphaned, most especially, the Apple Lisa. While the Mac that replaced it may have been a superior product, the bad taste left in the mouths of executives who bought into the Lisa program was too much. Business people like reliability and continuity, which is why Gates and MS made hay back in the day. MS may be a bloated tanker now, but in the early 80's it was a nimble group of techies fighting the good fight against IBM. And they gave excellent service, even to Apple users for whom they made lots of software.
Apple didn't provide that service. That was the biggest difference. The cost difference between early PC's and Macs wasn't that big. When the diverse configurabilty of the PC came into play in the late 80's, that was the death knell in terms of the greater business market.
Had Apple hand-held business in the early days, the computing world really might have been different indeed.
This reminds me entirely of napster and lokitorrent. It changed nothing. While annoying, this is as dumb as shooting one guy out of 1000 charging over a hill and declaring victory.
He probably is right in that the iPod probably will vanish down the road. I think that's reasonable and I don't believe Apple ever expected it would last forever as a product line. Who's to say that the iPod won't morph into the iPhone and have music and telephony.
Will Windows Mobile 5.0 be the thing. MS's track record in the mobile market (see Windows CE) does not make one optimistic.
Remember though, we diss Mr. Bill because he HAS in fact steamrolled everyone else (with, in many people's opinions, inferior product). Like him and his products or not, he is a formidable competitor.
I am aware of The Who album of the same name, but when I wrote I didn't intentionally use the subject line as a reference to it. For the record, "alright" means the same thing as all right. Look it up! Read a book knucklehead!
Anonymous Coward indeed!
Really, there are kids who can code. Most, however, will use the computer for entertainment. Not everyone can be a rocket scientist. It is probably viewed as most distressing on a site like slashdot because for the most part, this is a computing-centric group. We want to see "our kind" doing what we're good at. Things like programming apps, writing innovative code and not getting laid. Someone has to go to the future when we are old and our code is creaky.
I think though, this is no different than the notion that not all kids are good at math. A lot aren't, but you don't get quite the same reaction when scores are released show US kids faltering there. We're used to that now, but computing was supposed to be "our game".
As far as the rest of the world catching up, there is no stopping that. Will the US dry up as a source of good code? Unlikely, but expect to see some very sharp stuff coming out in the rest of the world. Don't be threatened by it. Frankly, it is getting wearisome to see that every time another nation puts up something great, the US reaction is peppered with a goodly amount of paranoia.
This bill was put forth by the party against "big government" and delivered to those who consider themselves the freest in the world.
Americans have official separation of church and state, and the president tries to intervene in a medical case on a religious basis.
I could go on, but I really don't get it.
Sure, they're picking our packets, but you guys are the ones who will soon need a national ID RFID card soon to buy, sell, trade, and restrict your movements.
Every country regulates their phone system. Using the internet to bypass regulations governing the phone system wasn't going to last. If people want unregulated phone-type service, they can use their computer with a headset and mike. Why regulate? Because in modern life, in our hemisphere, like it or not, phone service is an essential service.
Bad news too, the unregulated internet is on borrowed time. It's already happening.
Now you're really starting to weird me out.
Yeah, I see cats lying with dogs, I see healthy fast food, I see dead people! Pardon me on the dead people thing. A friend informs me that Orrin Hatch is in fact alive, and only appears to be dead.
I get the distinct impression that these actions are probably what bin Laden was hoping for when the planes went into the buildings. The erosion of democracy, fueled by fear, and driven into the arms of the police state.
Redefine science. How? Science is the process of theorizing, investigating, analyzing, testing and then concluding. That is science. The rest are bodies of knowledge devoted to subject areas of the natural world. Science needs no further definition.
What the "creationists" are postulating falls under catechism which is instruction in the elements of religion, specifically Christian, through question and answer.
If the creationists want to ensure their children are taught creation beliefs in public schools, they should have the option of having a catechism class where they could debate such things among themselves as I am sure that being exposed to scientific discoveries (not just in terms of evolution) causes the devout some consternation. The pressure on their beliefs is apt to increase as science is an expanding body of knowledge whereas religious beliefs are based on a static body of knowledge.
Ultimately I see confrontations such as this increasing rather than decreasing as science is constantly getting better tools for its task whereas religion only has the benefit of charismatic orators etc (and very few of those). No wonder they feel under siege and so grasping of opportunities, real and fabricated.
Creationism, in whatever guise they present it, can never be science so long as its proponents cling to a closed body of knowledge and can only answer with "the bible says so". Perhaps they need to believe that a supreme being was involved in the origin of things as they cannot grasp the notion that sometimes, things do happen without intervention.
Thank Odin it's Frigga's Day!
A judicial ruling that makes sense. I'm scared.
It is only controversial in that these groups are trying to push a particular agenda that is based on a belief system, not fact. In truth, evolution is a theory in name only. We know and observe that evolution occurs, but some of the mechanisms are misunderstood.
When it comes down to it though, these people are building a case on an unassailable position based on faith. This allows them to proceed in spite of physical evidence to the contrary, indeed perhaps, because of it.
In the end, as time goes on, evolutionary mechanisms become better understood and evidence mounts. On the other side of the coin, all you get are the same hackneyed claims with a new set of clothes, in this case "intelligent design". It doesn't advance because there can be no development without an increase in the body of knowledge. In the biblical based body of knowledge, it is "all there in the bible". There is nothing new, only wrangling over who's interpretation is the "correct one".
To make the claim that dressing an old thought up in a new set of clothes is science is just illogical. To give more than a basic amount of human respect to their beliefs is just dumb. If science has a problem here it is in trying to reason with the illogical. Always a poor proposition.
That said, if the creationists may pull their children from class if evolution is discussed, can a person who rejects creation mythologies pull their kids from that portion of the class?
This is the same as the guy who was selling acreage on the moon. It was ruled illegal and he got fined. Ultimately, you cannot sell what you do not own.
I think the so-called anonymity of the net gets out the tail tweaking side of a lot of people. They just want to see how much poop they can stir up.
Goes back to the caveman days y'know