Comment Re:And this was needed because? (Score 1) 248
I tend to talk on it a lot, using the headset, while it is also charging - in the car. Never for measuring elevation, or rarely music - but often for phone-ing.
So what happens when you are in an airplane and the cabin is pressurized?
the battery catches fire
Having a barometer built into a phone is more useful than you would think, exclusively when measuring elevation changes.
Fixed that for you
This might just be the most complicated method for turning the phone off when you get on a plane so the battery doesn't ignite. Now that they have become the first manufacturer to innovate a way to make water resistant phones, they have added elevation resistance as well!
A text whenever your credit card was used saying "Card with number ending in xxxx was used in location yyyy, if this was a fraudulent charge reply to this text" would work just as well without the privacy issue of tracking locations.
Unless your phone has been stolen too. Roughly half the population makes a habit of keeping their phones and wallets in a bag that can be quickly stolen.
Or you are in a foreign country, and you have your phone turned off.
Sounds like nothing more than a slightly different way to monitor potential fraud that gets a cellphone company some revenue instead of some analytics expert. In the end, it probably doesn't actually prevent much fraud.
Calling them "directed energy weapons" in the headline was pretty stupid. They're radio jammers and spoofers. What's their output, 10W?
That's 10,000,000,000 nanowatts!!!!
Unless they invented laser proof UAV's....
Then we would just switch to phasers.
When did a GPS jammer become a directed energy weapon?
You know, when Han used his Tricorder to restimulate the active particule neutrino phase shifters, which resulted in a plasma beam that disrupts the life-support system on any craft that flies slower than 22 parsecs.
Use tax is arguably unconstitutional due to the interstate commerce clause, and that is why states do not enforce it. They can wield the moral force of "this is the law" to those that don't know better and get them to put it on their tax returns, but they won't go after those who don't pay because they're afraid to lose. The states' end game has been a federal authorization for the states to collect sales tax because it would put them on much more solid legal ground.
You've clearly never been through a sales/use tax audit as a business.
They do not feel like it's unconstitutional, and are not afraid to enforce it. it's not a "moral force" - it actually is the law. You cannot get out of state entities to collect sales taxes for you, but if they can show that you have nexus in a state, they can make you collect them. If you buy things from anywhere, in or out of state, as a purchaser you must pay use tax on it. It's not a suggestion for the ignorant - it is the law that you report your untaxed purchases.
Technically you owe this on everything, even those things that have been taxed by other states - it's just that most states agree to reciprocity.
There is very little gray area here. As an individual they probably won't go after you, but businesses that are supposed to collect sales tax (including those without a physical presence) and pay use tax - they go after you like wolves.
A universal rule for everyone would be a dream for those that process sales taxes. It's ridiculous the amount of time that is spent figuring out which sales are taxable, what jurisdiction those are in (the state, county, city, LOST, misc taxes) and how to report and pay those.
My thought is that tablets will allow us to extend games and make them portable. For example, I would have loved to have been able to play Skyrim on the PS3 and the Tablet: The PS3 at home and the Tablet when on the road. Saved games would be synched to the cloud, similar to what Steam does today, and downloaded to the tablet so that you could pick up where you left the game. The capabilities of tablets would have to improve quite a bit before this happens, but it is coming...
I was thinking the same things as I was playing sim city the other day....man it would be nice if this game was synched to the cloud...
You're making the assumption that they thought about this. The people involved in the decision probably numbered in the dozens tops, with most of them marketing and finance people. With the way companies seem to be run to realize maximum profits in the short term these days, it's even possible they realized this but turned down the long term gain anyway.
Given the fact that we're talking about AMD and Nvidia, my guess is that it was a thoughtful decision.
The fact that they have walked away before, that AMD is in previous consoles, and that everyone is continuously crying (from the tech world and wall street alike) that AMD is near it's end (even though it's not), it sounds like they might have made a good decision.
AMD is going to spend a lot of time making a low margin product that is going to be outdated next year but one that they have to keep spending resources and time on for years. Nvidia is going to be spending their time on supercomputer applications, drivers, and pushing their image as a higher end card.
Sometimes you walk away from a business deal because you want your competitor to win it.
The problem isn't that "state taxes are too big for Amazon to figure out." They've got plenty of legal and tax representation.
The real issue is for SMALL sellers on the internet. Say, people who sell via etsy, or bands that sell albums direct to fans.
Now, suddenly, THOSE people need to understand and properly understand taxes for all 50 states, collect those taxes, and remit them to the proper time to the proper authorities. Oh, with all the necessary paperwork.
It's not just 50 states, its 50 states and each taxing jurisdiction in those states. City, county, local, and special taxing jurisdictions make sales and use tax incredibly complicated.
I buy the sort of stuff that people would buy at walmart (soap, deodorant, batteries and other household goods at Amazon so I don't have to pay sales tax
Then you are probably already not following the law. Most states require that you report any goods you buy where sales tax is due, but where the retailer did not collect sales taxes.
I'm going to assume you aren't reporting those purchases at the end of the year (I believe the statistics show most people don't) but that does not mean that it's not a requirement. This legislation is about making it possible for states to collect taxes that are already due in a manner that traditional brick-and-mortar already have to deal with.
Not much more challenging.
Note that this may not block individual attacks, but it should prevent mass cable intercepts.
It is much more challenging when all your data is in the cloud. You're communications might be secure, but if the low-level tech hired by the subcontracted firm that supports the datacenter for the company that the government has hired for "the cloud" decides to download all your information, then it doesn't matter how secure your communications are.
And who notices when all the corporate data you have, which can be accessed by anyone in the world with just a username and password, starts getting downloaded in central China, or Estonia?
Or who cares? That cloud provider lets you setup usernames and passwords, and tell you it's secure. Your employees go home, where they've recently downloaded "AVG Super Microsoft Spyware Buster Plus" for a small fee, and now your corporate data is available on bittorrent.
If you call that cloud provider and complain, they say "our users can work anywhere in the world, it's "the cloud
If a subordinate asks you a pertinent question, look at him as if he had lost his senses. When he looks down, paraphrase the question back at him.
