Have fun putting DVDs through your computer when your hard drive dies.
Have fun putting through a HDD when your HDD dies only to realise the drive has been sitting on a shelf for long enough for the motors to seize up.
If your long term backups are too big to go to DVD, you put them to tape. 1.5 TB on an LTO5 tape for the same price as a 1 TB HDD and the tape is a hell of a lot more durable and eaiser to recover data from if it isn't in good condition a few years later.
If you've only got one set of backups and/or are constantly overwriting them with new copies then you're a complete fool (and you'll feel like a complete fool when you go to restore that corrupt file and you realise it was corrupted 3 months ago and you've been backing up the corrupt version over the top).
For our backups, they go to tape each month and get stored for 2 years, For archives they go to DVD as each job is usually only a few GB. For things that we have to keep for legal reasons (I.E. Financial data) this is so small it can be put to CD. Storage of this is easy as we have to make a new copy every month for auditing purposes and this does require separate media (otherwise the auditors get upset).
If you think optical media is going away, you're seriously deluding yourself. Optical media will be with us until AFTER you can buy a box of 50 flash media off the shelf of K-Mart for $20.
optical disks still cost less then usb keys / sdcards in bulk.
Also HSI is not all over the place and 3g/4g caps are low.
And to install a OS a disk is nice and not a restore / recovery partition that can be wiped out by hdd failing / junk software / putting a bigger drive in your system.
Also what about building a pc you need a os install disk.
Add to this portability. If I have to send 12 GB interstate overnight, it's cheaper and easier to burn it to 3 DVD's and courier it. I have to send 2-3 GB of data to clients on a semi regular basis and it's simple to pop it on a DVD and into the post rather than set up FTP/HTTP downloads for multi GB's worth of RAR files (note the plural, I'd cut the files into manageable peices). Plus with DVD's more often than not I can send the data as is (usually images and shape files) which the clients prefers.
OK, I do OS installs from USB media when I can these days but... Yes, I still have optical install disks and cant see then going anywhere until flash drives come in a box of 50 for $20.
An MMO could handle the latency issue better than most other types of games, but it would still suck. Back when I used to play MMOs, my ping was routinely 200ms. It only really got annoying when it was above 500ms. But then the rendering was all done locally and only my position and commands were sent to and from the server, so the game seemed somewhat responsive even when latency was going on behind the scenes.
Absolutely forget any sort of FPS.
By MMO I assume you mean MMORPG.
In which case the combat is still turn based whilst the animation is in real time. The animations are only in real time because they are done locally.
What the OP said is still correct. Forget anything real time. Because none of the processing is done locally you need to send both the input and output over the network which makes latency of 40ms quite noticeable. I can play FPS's with a ping of 200ms I even play some with 300ms but this is tolerable because the amount of info it sends over the network is miniscule, I dont have to wait 200ms for input to at least look like it's happened, if I did FPS's would be well and truly unplayable.
not an effect. Making use of stats is not racism. Racism is denying the fact that many blacks in the US have been disadvantaged and largely as a result are more likely to commit crimes and get arrested. Pretending the numbers don't exist is horrible.
Erm no.
Racism is saying that blacks are lesser creatures than whites and/or should be denied the same rights and opportunities.
What you describe is more to do with socio-economic factors than race factors. You'll find that whites or Asians in the same situation tend to be more likely to commit crimes and get arrested than people of the same race in better socio-economic situations. Pretending that's about race dilutes the meaning of the word racism making it lose impact which helps actual racists.
Oh, and before you complain about nearly $40 to secure that $2500+ computer
When I pay $2500 for a computer I'd expect it to have the same safety features as a $500 computer, especially when they're charging $2500 for $1100 worth of components.
So, in the case of the case of the Mac Pro, who is actually "negligent" if a child/mentally-challenged-adult opens a Mac Pro and sticks their widdle fingaws in it?
The manufacturer who didn't install the fan guards or properly seal the case.
Then you were driving incompetently. You shouldn't tail-gate. You should always leave enough room for you to stop if the guy in front does something strange like stamp on the brakes or swerve or something. Yes, they might be a lot to blame but you're still supposed to take care of yourself by anticipating the (immediate) future road conditions and driving so that you remain safe. Didn't you ever get taught that as part of showing you're fit to drive on the public highway?
I bet he also drives an auto.
In Australia the law states you need to maintain a distance sufficient to stop in an emergency without running into the car in front of you.
The general rule of thumb is the car behind is at fault. This isn't true in 100% of cases, probably only about 95%.
I've never been a BB fan (never owned one) but I was given an iPhone and a BB10 beta to play with. The BB10 feels way better, and I mean waaaay better. With the iPhone it feels like you spend most of the time clicking on the menu button moving to another app. On the BB10 you swipe left or up and as if by magic all your other app(s) are there, still running.
I get this on Android.
With IOS I have to go back to the home screen to switch between apps. On Android I just bring up the recently used app menu.
"y i.r.id10t" said it, but it deserves saying again.
In Afghanistan, a bunch of guys with rifles (the weaponry the gun-rights advocates are trying to protect) and improvised explosives have fought the U.S. military to a stalemate for more than 12 years. That's a country of 30M people and about 650K sq km. The contiguous 48 states in the USA are 12X the land area of Afghanistan with 10X the population. What makes you think the military would be any more successful fighting a guerrilla war here?
You're an idiot, but it deserves saying again.
The military in the US isn't sucessful in Iraq and Afghanistan for the same reason it wasn't successful in Vietnam (or Nazi Germany wasn't successful in France or anywhere else they invaded). They dont have the support of the people.
The gunmen in Iraq and Afghanistan are protected by just about every single civilian in the country. There is barely any support for invading US forces from the local populace. Why do gun nuts continually overlook this glaringly obvious fact?
When you've got "patriots" turning in "insurgents" to the government forces the rebellions ability to perform hit and fade operations reduces significantly. The armies moral increases whilst the rebellions decreases. Here it doesn't matter how many guns you have, if fighters lose the will to use them. At best you end up with a stalemate, forcing the invading forces to go home as the Vietnamese did back in the 70's. When the "invading force" is already home, the ability to do this is eliminated.
After 12 years, all the fighters, gunmen and IED's in Afghanistan have not forced the US to leave. It took the Vietnamese a decade and that was with an actual trained army (NVA) and a plethora of weapons given to them by the Russians and Chinese, even then the US was forced to leave by discontent at home. Eventually the US will have to leave Afghanistan, but it will be because of lack of support for the war in the US, not due to Afghan fighters.
Also if you think the supply line for a bunch of, basically, overgrown hunters, is insecure and easy to cut, you surely have never seen an armor supply line. The best way to fight armor (and air!), if you're in no great hurry, is to hide from / avoid / ignore it and go after the fuel / food / water / supply convoys. Hmm sound like a scenario where the US has recently lost the war? A broken tank is basically useless tactically and the MTBF isn't as good as you'd like to think under combat conditions.
Supply lines nor lack of combined arms is not why the US lost in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The reason the US lost is because the people did not support the invading US forces at all.
Gunmen with improvised weapons and no training were able to hide because everyone, almost every single civilian gave them aid and shelter. The US forces on the other hand received nothing of the sort. Now in the event of a civil war, do you honestly think there wont be "patriots" who will happily turn in the "insurgents" harming their country. Think about it, do you honestly think there wont be people utterly committed to helping the US government, even if that government is extremely authoritarian?
Seriously, there are people in the US who want a radical, right wing, authoritarian government and not just the ones on slashdot.
Now what infantry really doesn't like is trained experienced snipers operating defensive at time and place of their choosing on their own very well known turf aka NOT gun nuts.
Gun nuts are not snipers. They are neither trained nor experienced. This is why mass shootings only kill dozens, not hundreds.
It is notable that you can surf porn like crazy with Apple's own tool: Safari.
Apple is not my mother. I already have a mother.
Apple is less your mother and more your jailer.
It keeps you in walls, limits what you're allowed to see and do. Controls access and keeps you in an entirely self contained world under Apple's complete control.
Your mother at least cares about what you want... Apple carries out it's own agenda regardless of what you want.
3 years ago, I started offering a 3% cash discount (cash discounts were allowable all along)
now my plastic sales come in under 400k, and my net sales are comparable....
This.
Discount for cash rather than a surcharge for card. It makes it a lot more palatable for the customer and better PR.
When I travel in Asia there is always a surcharge for using credit cards except it's disguised as "cash price" and "card price". Most SE Asian economies are cash oriented and so things tend to be very, very cheap. Paying with cash saves me 5-10% on hotels. This adds up when you've got $1000 hotel bills (3 weeks of acom).
Then you should be mad at the CC companies and banks who have been sticking it to ALL OF US whether we used cash or credit than to the store who is trying NOT to assrape you if you pay with cash.
This x 1000.
Businesses exist to make a profit, this is not a bad thing(TM). A business can be profit making and fair and forthright in their dealings.
The whole point of the suit was the banks and CC companies said "Fuck 'em, just raise prices across the board 3% and we'll BOTH make out" to hide the fees.
This is what happens in Australia.
Everyone and their dog complains about high prices in Australia but few are willing to actually change their habits to lower prices. If you look at some of the more affordable economies around the planet, they are very cash oriented (customers benefit from tax evasion too, not that I promote tax evasion mind you).
This is how banks screw all of us.
1. Entice consumers to use credit cards.
2. Charge merchants for accepting credit cards.
3. Profit.
There's no need for ??? here. This is also why rewards programs are an utter crock of shit. They make more out of you in merchant service fees on your "fee free" card than they spend on their "reward program".
Personally, I like credit card surcharges. They are basically a discount for those of us who use cash.
I have a 3400 sqft house with a single Asus router running the whole deal.
I also went through 2 WRT54G's in as many years. I find both stories believeable, but of the people I know, no one is actually still using their WRT54G for anything other than one guy is using it for a small wired subnet. The wireless generally loses range on them as they get older for some inexplicable reason.
I must be the exception, the Linksys WRT54G I bought in 2005 still worked as well as the day I bought it when I retired it in 2012. The Belkin POS it was replaced with (not my decision unfortunately) has given me nothing but grief in the last 8 months.
Might just be where you're living, any extreme cold or humidity?
But Linksys gear has gone to crap since then. I'd recommend Asus or Netgear over Linksys at this point in time.
This doesn't even get into the situations where a CEO is given a "salary" of $1 and generous stock options and non-monetary perks (thus living a life of luxury despite having a very low "income").
This is why any remuneration, be it monetary or otherwise needs to be counted as income.
That being said, flat taxes are good for things like Income. But consumption taxes are better for other things like fuel. The guy who buys a fuel efficient hatch or sedan shouldn't pay the same amount for road maintenance or pollution taxes as the guys who drive fuel guzzling SUV's or Sports cars. Tax fuel at the pump and you pay for what you use, far better than taking road maint costs from income tax or worse, fine revenue.
I agree that simplifying the tax goal is a good goal.
This, If you simplify the tax rules you find more people paying tax.
The reason for this is twofold,
1. Fewer people will put off doing tax as it's no longer such a massive chore.
2. Fewer loopholes to help dodgy people who can hire high priced accountants to exploit them.
In Australia our tax system is relatively simple. A person of average intelligence can sit in front of E-Tax and be done in an hour. A person of above average intelligence can be done in 20 minutes. Personally I use a tax accountant who charges A$140 per lodgement (once a year), but he knows all the loopholes (he's ex-ATO) so he pays for himself (compared to the number I get on e-tax). He's not dishonest (just damn good at his job) and I'm hardly rich to afford $140 a year... I guess this one is about who you know:)
UX designers and experts have been clamouring for simplification for years,
This is because UX is a bollocks field that has nothing to do with HMI and HCI.
Perfect example:
Cascading drop menus that require click+hold, or click+hover to keep open.
Ironically this is the perfect example.
In a desktop interface if you want to have multiple levels of menus to keep a menu system uncluttered, you did the cascading thing you mentioned.
In a mobile interface, to do the same thing you have to have separately loaded menus rather than one cascading menu. In terms of screen space this is better, but in terms of user friendliness, it's not. You're constantly having to go back and forth between menu and sub-menu, to the user this is tedious and time consuming as in order to go back, you need to change menu's entirely. If you dont separate options out into sub-menu's you end up with all options in 1 menu which is a usability nightmare.
Android as of 3.0 began to fix this on tablets where there is room on screen to have a cascading menu. Android 4.0 began to fix it on the mobile by having vertically cascading menus (I.E. you could pick "Menu A" and all the options under Menu A would appear below pushing Menu B below that, to close it you simply tapped Menu A again or scrolled down to Menu B if you didn't want to do that).
BTW, "touch and hover" has been fixed for some time, most menus will stay open until you click outside the menu area now (or another form of input that tells it to close, such as the esc or alt key). I'm not sure which era you're stuck in but I suspect its Windows 98.
Ah yes. tigerdirect.com is notorious for this. Call up, complain, get it fixed, then "We would like to offer you a free copy of x", which is actually a subscription auto-billed to your credit card. They will only take a hang up as an affirmative no. I started just paying the few bucks for newegg.com
This is why you dont accept free shit instead of having them fix your problem.
I used to have a housemate who had a constant problem with the handset Optus (Australian Telco) sold to her. She was on Pre-Paid (Pay As You Go) so she paid for the handset outright. Every month she'd ring up and complain, every month they'd offer her $10 credit to get her off the phone and every month I'd ask "but did they fix your problem". She didn't get it and continued to get constant call disconnections.
Companies offer free shit because it's easier than fixing the problem. When you take the free shit, you give them a free pass not to fix the problem.
Obviously the CEO is using reliability via redundancy. If he has 10 fast Italian cars, he's got a decent chance that at least one works at any given time.
Redundant Array of Expensive Ferrari's?
How would that work if it broke down whilst he was driving? will he need to tow the other 9 Ferrari's to ensure that he has the ability to failover at any time?
Slashdot Mirror
Have fun putting through a HDD when your HDD dies only to realise the drive has been sitting on a shelf for long enough for the motors to seize up.
If your long term backups are too big to go to DVD, you put them to tape. 1.5 TB on an LTO5 tape for the same price as a 1 TB HDD and the tape is a hell of a lot more durable and eaiser to recover data from if it isn't in good condition a few years later.
If you've only got one set of backups and/or are constantly overwriting them with new copies then you're a complete fool (and you'll feel like a complete fool when you go to restore that corrupt file and you realise it was corrupted 3 months ago and you've been backing up the corrupt version over the top). For our backups, they go to tape each month and get stored for 2 years, For archives they go to DVD as each job is usually only a few GB. For things that we have to keep for legal reasons (I.E. Financial data) this is so small it can be put to CD. Storage of this is easy as we have to make a new copy every month for auditing purposes and this does require separate media (otherwise the auditors get upset).
If you think optical media is going away, you're seriously deluding yourself. Optical media will be with us until AFTER you can buy a box of 50 flash media off the shelf of K-Mart for $20.
optical disks still cost less then usb keys / sdcards in bulk.
Also HSI is not all over the place and 3g/4g caps are low.
And to install a OS a disk is nice and not a restore / recovery partition that can be wiped out by hdd failing / junk software / putting a bigger drive in your system.
Also what about building a pc you need a os install disk.
Add to this portability. If I have to send 12 GB interstate overnight, it's cheaper and easier to burn it to 3 DVD's and courier it. I have to send 2-3 GB of data to clients on a semi regular basis and it's simple to pop it on a DVD and into the post rather than set up FTP/HTTP downloads for multi GB's worth of RAR files (note the plural, I'd cut the files into manageable peices). Plus with DVD's more often than not I can send the data as is (usually images and shape files) which the clients prefers.
OK, I do OS installs from USB media when I can these days but... Yes, I still have optical install disks and cant see then going anywhere until flash drives come in a box of 50 for $20.
An MMO could handle the latency issue better than most other types of games, but it would still suck. Back when I used to play MMOs, my ping was routinely 200ms. It only really got annoying when it was above 500ms. But then the rendering was all done locally and only my position and commands were sent to and from the server, so the game seemed somewhat responsive even when latency was going on behind the scenes.
Absolutely forget any sort of FPS.
By MMO I assume you mean MMORPG.
In which case the combat is still turn based whilst the animation is in real time. The animations are only in real time because they are done locally.
What the OP said is still correct. Forget anything real time. Because none of the processing is done locally you need to send both the input and output over the network which makes latency of 40ms quite noticeable. I can play FPS's with a ping of 200ms I even play some with 300ms but this is tolerable because the amount of info it sends over the network is miniscule, I dont have to wait 200ms for input to at least look like it's happened, if I did FPS's would be well and truly unplayable.
not an effect. Making use of stats is not racism. Racism is denying the fact that many blacks in the US have been disadvantaged and largely as a result are more likely to commit crimes and get arrested. Pretending the numbers don't exist is horrible.
Erm no.
Racism is saying that blacks are lesser creatures than whites and/or should be denied the same rights and opportunities.
What you describe is more to do with socio-economic factors than race factors. You'll find that whites or Asians in the same situation tend to be more likely to commit crimes and get arrested than people of the same race in better socio-economic situations. Pretending that's about race dilutes the meaning of the word racism making it lose impact which helps actual racists.
When I pay $2500 for a computer I'd expect it to have the same safety features as a $500 computer, especially when they're charging $2500 for $1100 worth of components.
The manufacturer who didn't install the fan guards or properly seal the case.
Hows Stockholm Syndrome working out for you?
And you should be driving defensively, instead of assuming everyone on the road is driving in the correct frame of mind.
Sounds like he is.
But he was talking about tailgating, which one of the stupidest things you can do on the road and no fault of the car in front.
Red light cameras work in theory. They cause more accidents in reality.
They work in reality too.
Red light cameras have reduced the fatalities and severity of injuries from crashes at red lights. Also the number of right angle (T-Bone) crashes were reduced.
http://summaries.cochrane.org/CD003862/red-light-cameras-cut-casualty-crashes-at-junctions-with-traffic-lights
Then you were driving incompetently. You shouldn't tail-gate. You should always leave enough room for you to stop if the guy in front does something strange like stamp on the brakes or swerve or something. Yes, they might be a lot to blame but you're still supposed to take care of yourself by anticipating the (immediate) future road conditions and driving so that you remain safe. Didn't you ever get taught that as part of showing you're fit to drive on the public highway?
I bet he also drives an auto.
In Australia the law states you need to maintain a distance sufficient to stop in an emergency without running into the car in front of you.
The general rule of thumb is the car behind is at fault. This isn't true in 100% of cases, probably only about 95%.
Shouldn't that be FOAD?
FOADIAF
Here in Australia we dont have an issue. I've seen DILLIGAF, FACTHUNT and PORKHUNT on the road. EPICHUNT is still available in WA.
There were some plates with a picture of a starfish embossed on the right hand side issued some years back. Someone got CHOCOLATE.
I've never been a BB fan (never owned one) but I was given an iPhone and a BB10 beta to play with. The BB10 feels way better, and I mean waaaay better. With the iPhone it feels like you spend most of the time clicking on the menu button moving to another app. On the BB10 you swipe left or up and as if by magic all your other app(s) are there, still running.
I get this on Android. With IOS I have to go back to the home screen to switch between apps. On Android I just bring up the recently used app menu.
"y i.r.id10t" said it, but it deserves saying again.
In Afghanistan, a bunch of guys with rifles (the weaponry the gun-rights advocates are trying to protect) and improvised explosives have fought the U.S. military to a stalemate for more than 12 years. That's a country of 30M people and about 650K sq km. The contiguous 48 states in the USA are 12X the land area of Afghanistan with 10X the population. What makes you think the military would be any more successful fighting a guerrilla war here?
You're an idiot, but it deserves saying again. The military in the US isn't sucessful in Iraq and Afghanistan for the same reason it wasn't successful in Vietnam (or Nazi Germany wasn't successful in France or anywhere else they invaded). They dont have the support of the people.
The gunmen in Iraq and Afghanistan are protected by just about every single civilian in the country. There is barely any support for invading US forces from the local populace. Why do gun nuts continually overlook this glaringly obvious fact?
When you've got "patriots" turning in "insurgents" to the government forces the rebellions ability to perform hit and fade operations reduces significantly. The armies moral increases whilst the rebellions decreases. Here it doesn't matter how many guns you have, if fighters lose the will to use them. At best you end up with a stalemate, forcing the invading forces to go home as the Vietnamese did back in the 70's. When the "invading force" is already home, the ability to do this is eliminated.
After 12 years, all the fighters, gunmen and IED's in Afghanistan have not forced the US to leave. It took the Vietnamese a decade and that was with an actual trained army (NVA) and a plethora of weapons given to them by the Russians and Chinese, even then the US was forced to leave by discontent at home. Eventually the US will have to leave Afghanistan, but it will be because of lack of support for the war in the US, not due to Afghan fighters.
Supply lines nor lack of combined arms is not why the US lost in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The reason the US lost is because the people did not support the invading US forces at all.
Gunmen with improvised weapons and no training were able to hide because everyone, almost every single civilian gave them aid and shelter. The US forces on the other hand received nothing of the sort. Now in the event of a civil war, do you honestly think there wont be "patriots" who will happily turn in the "insurgents" harming their country. Think about it, do you honestly think there wont be people utterly committed to helping the US government, even if that government is extremely authoritarian?
Seriously, there are people in the US who want a radical, right wing, authoritarian government and not just the ones on slashdot.
Gun nuts are not snipers. They are neither trained nor experienced. This is why mass shootings only kill dozens, not hundreds.
BITS we'll be blown to, all of us, after all.
I hope this doesn't byte us in the arse.
What the hell has Kermit got to do with any of this?
Personally I'm more worried about Professor Bunsen and Beaker selling cheap meth to Fozzie Bear.
Personally I like "The Cyber Extinction". It just sounds awesome!
Starts whistling the Doctor Who theme song.
Dun de dun de dun de dun de dun de dun wOOOoooo Woo-oo-o
It is notable that you can surf porn like crazy with Apple's own tool: Safari.
Apple is not my mother. I already have a mother.
Apple is less your mother and more your jailer.
It keeps you in walls, limits what you're allowed to see and do. Controls access and keeps you in an entirely self contained world under Apple's complete control.
Your mother at least cares about what you want... Apple carries out it's own agenda regardless of what you want.
Every single current US coin is minted by treasury, you moron.
Including the forged ones?
3 years ago, I started offering a 3% cash discount (cash discounts were allowable all along)
now my plastic sales come in under 400k, and my net sales are comparable....
This.
Discount for cash rather than a surcharge for card. It makes it a lot more palatable for the customer and better PR.
When I travel in Asia there is always a surcharge for using credit cards except it's disguised as "cash price" and "card price". Most SE Asian economies are cash oriented and so things tend to be very, very cheap. Paying with cash saves me 5-10% on hotels. This adds up when you've got $1000 hotel bills (3 weeks of acom).
Then you should be mad at the CC companies and banks who have been sticking it to ALL OF US whether we used cash or credit than to the store who is trying NOT to assrape you if you pay with cash.
This x 1000. Businesses exist to make a profit, this is not a bad thing(TM). A business can be profit making and fair and forthright in their dealings.
The whole point of the suit was the banks and CC companies said "Fuck 'em, just raise prices across the board 3% and we'll BOTH make out" to hide the fees.
This is what happens in Australia.
Everyone and their dog complains about high prices in Australia but few are willing to actually change their habits to lower prices. If you look at some of the more affordable economies around the planet, they are very cash oriented (customers benefit from tax evasion too, not that I promote tax evasion mind you).
This is how banks screw all of us.
1. Entice consumers to use credit cards.
2. Charge merchants for accepting credit cards.
3. Profit.
There's no need for ??? here. This is also why rewards programs are an utter crock of shit. They make more out of you in merchant service fees on your "fee free" card than they spend on their "reward program".
Personally, I like credit card surcharges. They are basically a discount for those of us who use cash.
Have you tried to fit modules into a chassis after they changed suppliers to Chinese ones? Damn, I need a two pound sledgehammer to seat them now
You wont get a sledge hammer from Cisco for only two quid mate.
I have a 3400 sqft house with a single Asus router running the whole deal.
I also went through 2 WRT54G's in as many years. I find both stories believeable, but of the people I know, no one is actually still using their WRT54G for anything other than one guy is using it for a small wired subnet. The wireless generally loses range on them as they get older for some inexplicable reason.
I must be the exception, the Linksys WRT54G I bought in 2005 still worked as well as the day I bought it when I retired it in 2012. The Belkin POS it was replaced with (not my decision unfortunately) has given me nothing but grief in the last 8 months.
Might just be where you're living, any extreme cold or humidity? But Linksys gear has gone to crap since then. I'd recommend Asus or Netgear over Linksys at this point in time.
This doesn't even get into the situations where a CEO is given a "salary" of $1 and generous stock options and non-monetary perks (thus living a life of luxury despite having a very low "income").
This is why any remuneration, be it monetary or otherwise needs to be counted as income.
That being said, flat taxes are good for things like Income. But consumption taxes are better for other things like fuel. The guy who buys a fuel efficient hatch or sedan shouldn't pay the same amount for road maintenance or pollution taxes as the guys who drive fuel guzzling SUV's or Sports cars. Tax fuel at the pump and you pay for what you use, far better than taking road maint costs from income tax or worse, fine revenue.
I agree that simplifying the tax goal is a good goal.
This, If you simplify the tax rules you find more people paying tax.
:)
The reason for this is twofold,
1. Fewer people will put off doing tax as it's no longer such a massive chore.
2. Fewer loopholes to help dodgy people who can hire high priced accountants to exploit them.
In Australia our tax system is relatively simple. A person of average intelligence can sit in front of E-Tax and be done in an hour. A person of above average intelligence can be done in 20 minutes. Personally I use a tax accountant who charges A$140 per lodgement (once a year), but he knows all the loopholes (he's ex-ATO) so he pays for himself (compared to the number I get on e-tax). He's not dishonest (just damn good at his job) and I'm hardly rich to afford $140 a year... I guess this one is about who you know
This is because UX is a bollocks field that has nothing to do with HMI and HCI.
Ironically this is the perfect example.
In a desktop interface if you want to have multiple levels of menus to keep a menu system uncluttered, you did the cascading thing you mentioned.
In a mobile interface, to do the same thing you have to have separately loaded menus rather than one cascading menu. In terms of screen space this is better, but in terms of user friendliness, it's not. You're constantly having to go back and forth between menu and sub-menu, to the user this is tedious and time consuming as in order to go back, you need to change menu's entirely. If you dont separate options out into sub-menu's you end up with all options in 1 menu which is a usability nightmare.
Android as of 3.0 began to fix this on tablets where there is room on screen to have a cascading menu. Android 4.0 began to fix it on the mobile by having vertically cascading menus (I.E. you could pick "Menu A" and all the options under Menu A would appear below pushing Menu B below that, to close it you simply tapped Menu A again or scrolled down to Menu B if you didn't want to do that).
BTW, "touch and hover" has been fixed for some time, most menus will stay open until you click outside the menu area now (or another form of input that tells it to close, such as the esc or alt key). I'm not sure which era you're stuck in but I suspect its Windows 98.
Ah yes. tigerdirect.com is notorious for this. Call up, complain, get it fixed, then "We would like to offer you a free copy of x", which is actually a subscription auto-billed to your credit card. They will only take a hang up as an affirmative no. I started just paying the few bucks for newegg.com
This is why you dont accept free shit instead of having them fix your problem.
I used to have a housemate who had a constant problem with the handset Optus (Australian Telco) sold to her. She was on Pre-Paid (Pay As You Go) so she paid for the handset outright. Every month she'd ring up and complain, every month they'd offer her $10 credit to get her off the phone and every month I'd ask "but did they fix your problem". She didn't get it and continued to get constant call disconnections.
Companies offer free shit because it's easier than fixing the problem. When you take the free shit, you give them a free pass not to fix the problem.
Obviously the CEO is using reliability via redundancy. If he has 10 fast Italian cars, he's got a decent chance that at least one works at any given time.
Redundant Array of Expensive Ferrari's?
How would that work if it broke down whilst he was driving? will he need to tow the other 9 Ferrari's to ensure that he has the ability to failover at any time?