Greetings and Salutations;
          Big thumbs up to this! WHile scale explosions CAN provide useful data, I am not sure that (other than the coolness factor) there is any reason for this to show up on Slashdot.
            Pleasant dreams
            Dave Mundt

Greetings and Salutations;
          Well, if this fellow is going to register a printer, perhaps he should also insist that lathes, drill presses, files, and other hand tools be registered too. He apparently does not realize that I could go into the shop, and in fairly short order turn out weapons that would be far more accurate than the plastic ones from the printers, and, will last for thousands of rounds.
        Beyond that, it is also not that hard to make ceramic weapons that are equally hard to find and have the same abilities.
        I would suggest that the better course of action would be to work on making America a place where people do not think of guns as the first course of action to resolve a situation.

Eric, I get the feeling that you have no practical experience with the tax revenue boys in the states. Not only would the merchant have to deal with an amazing chaos of taxes to collect, but, there is a good chance that at least once a year, the tax boys will screw up your information, and either (at best) send you a testy note billing you for some fictitious number that is half again as much as you have ever billed and sent them, or, (at worst) will, without warning yank every penny you have out of every bank you have it in, even if the total amount is WELL beyond the fictitious amount they claim you owe. That sort of trouble can take months to clear up and much correspondence.
          Do not fool yourself that states will not "bother" with small payments. If they can collect at least $5.00 they will expect the paperwork and check on time. They are not going to exempt anyone, unless forced to.
          My general rule about politicians, which I formulated several decades ago, is that money to a politician is like crack to an addict. It does not matter how much they have, they want more, and, they want it badly enough that they would sell their grandmother and baby daughter into S&M prostitution to get more of it.
          Pleasant dreams
          dave mundt

Greetings and Salutations;
            There is a simple way to deal with this problem. Instead of buying the software and doing it yourself, print all the information off and take it to a Block office. Pay them to do the work. There are several reasons for doing this:
          1) Block has a strong training program, and, a large percentage of their people do nothing else besides study the tax code. There are a significant number of Enrolled Agents that work for them. These are folks that, basically know more about the tax code than the IRS does. So..the bottom line is that they are far more likely to ensure that you pay the minimum tax necessary. Programs are great tools, but, people are better at this, because it is a pretty fuzzy and constantly changing area.
          2) The cost of having Block prepare your return is likely going to be LESS than the amount you quoted above for preparing your tax info.
          3) The cost of having Block prepare your form is directly deductible from the tax amount you owe. If you do the work, you can deduct the cost of the software, but, you will have a hard time justifying the remaining chunk of that $300 you quoted, if the IRS decides to look at you.
          4) If you ARE audited, Block will go with you to the audit, and will work to clear up any problems. However, as long as your data is good, that should not be a problem.

            And, no, I do not work for Block (I do not have the kind of mind that can deal with sorting through the plate of spaghetti that is the tax code), but I do have a relative that is an enrolled agent and has worked with them for many years.
          Pleasant dreams
          Dave Mundt

Greetings and Salutations;
          Yea...it is hard to tell the difference sometimes. I had a trailer that was "confiscated" by the county sheriffs dept because it was "stolen". However, when I got the police report from the cop in Knoxville, it concluded that there had been no theft. The guys that took the trailer did not want any of the stuff that had been on it either. So...after several Emails to the Sheriff, with no results, I had little to do but come to the conclusion that someone wanted a new trailer and mine was at hand. I hope they are enjoying it, because not having it has screwed up my life a number of times!
            pleasant dreams
          dave mundt

Greetings and Salutations
          I would suggest one of two options.
          1) Carry a small, digital recorder with you, and, every so often record a few comments about what has been going on.
          2) As a meditation and contemplation technique, take some time at the end of the day to type some notes into a document about the day and its events. Keeping a day book like that can allow a person to filter out the useless stuff and only keep the good stuff. after all, who really wants to see hours of walking down the sidewalk, or, sitting at a desk, shuffling papers.

Greetings and salutations;
          I do not think that the OP understands what a "tip" is. Let me define it, just on the off chance that they actually READ follow-up posts. A tip is not a gift, nor is it connected with whoring (unless the OP goes to some VERY different restaurants than I frequent). Rather it is a message to the server about the quality of their work (I. E. making the restaurant experience pleasant enough that you, the customer enjoys it and leaves both spiritually and physically fed and refreshed). There is a protocol to this. The basic rule is 15% of the bill. The worst the service the smaller that number gets. The better the service, the larger that number should get. I have, in the past, left a dime, but that was for such bad service that I was forced to actually go get refills of tea and such for myself. I have gone up as high as 50% of the total, but, that was for very excellent service, and, a somewhat small check.
          In case the OP is unaware of this, servers do not make minimum wage. Rather, they may make as little as $2.50/hour. The difference between what the restaurant pays the worker, and a living wage is made up by the tips they get, so, when a server does a good or great job, and gets no tip has really been screwed over. It is a hard way to make a living, even for those folks that are good at it, and get a fair amount in tips. So..remember that is a person that is bringing you dinner, and keeping your glass filled, and, they have bills and problems and worries just like the rest of us, but, in general they leave them outside the store... Tip your wait-staff well, they deserve it.
pleasant dreams
dave mundt

Greetings and Salutations;
            While I am no fan of the mindless rants and hate-filled postings that some anonymous folks post to the Internet, I believe that the value of being ABLE to post anonymously outweighs the costs. After all, what about Deep Throat? (just to name one of a long line of anonymous whistle-blowers who have provided a great service to the American public). Without the ability to post anonymously, there is a chilling effect on exposing any behavior that is ethically questionable, criminal, or generally unacceptable, especially if the subject has great power in society. Should there be limits? Yes, but, the Supreme Court has laid out some excellent and usable guidelines as to what sorts of speech are unacceptable. If the posts do not cross that line, I do not think that they should be removed.
            Pleasant Dreams
          Dave Mundt

IIZENII, you obvious know nothing about teaching, have never taught, and likely do not know any teachers. My father was a professor, and I have been in contact with teachers throughout my life. In addition, while my chosen career did not explicitly call for teaching, I made it a point to ensure that I taught my clients enough about what I was doing that the problems they were having were no longer complete mysteries. Let me address some of your points - first off, there is that working day. Most teachers I have known typically get to their classroom at least an hour before school starts, to make sure that they are up to speed on the day's lessons, do final checks that the materials they need are at hand and the room is fairly neat. As for the time afterwards, even taking your numbers it means that teachers work upwards of two hours of unpaid overtime every day. If the tests a teacher gives require more than checking one option of a multiple choice question, then, it can take up to an hour to grade. With too many classrooms having 40 or so students in them, that is anywhere from 20 to 40 hours of other work each week. Add to that the time that it takes the teacher to re-work lesson plans to take into account new data, or the changes implemented by politically motivated school boards and you add more hours to the week.
          As for what teacher's earn...The salaries in the high-population states may be relatively high, but, as others have pointed out, the cost of living can be much higher. In Tennessee, for example, the average salary is closer to $37K. In the 1960s, that would have been a good wage. Now, it is close to allowing the teacher to receive food stamps and other state aid. If the teacher is a single person, with no children, it is quite possible to exist on that level of income. All you have to give up are vacations, eating out, and tickets to entertainment events. If the teacher happens to be a single mother, the situation is much, much more challenging.
          Finally, as for your remark that "anyone can teach". I have to take issue with that after decades of observing the profession, both from the inside and the outside. Being able to present information is a skill that anyone can have. Being able to teach it - I. E. present it to a student in a form that allows them to understand it, and incorporate that understanding into their model of reality - is more of a gift. The problem is that no two people learn in the same manner, so, what works with one will fail with another. When I am explaining concepts about how the computer works, for example, I have to find concrete examples that people can grasp. To explain how a hard drive works, with one person I might use the example of the pigeonholes that the Post office used to use for sorting mail. With another person, a room full of filing cabinets works better. With a third person, referring to the stacks of a library gives them insight to start them on the path of understanding. Good, gifted teachers understand this, and can tell when a student is not getting it, and, can work to find that concrete example that brings understanding. Poor teachers are only able to present the data they have in one fashion. I am reminded of "The Big Bang Theory", and Sheldon Cooper as a perfect example of the latter teacher. His character is, without a doubt, a genius who is perfectly comfortable moving in worlds of concepts that we, ordinary folks, can only guess at. However, he is almost totally incapable of communicating the information he knows to anyone that is not working on his level of intellect. What good is a teacher who can only teach a few dozen people out of the entire world's population when there are tens of thousands of less capable students who really need to understand basic concepts of physics and math?

with a little uncertainty

Greetings and salutations.
I have a number of friends that work in the Department of Human Services, so, Let me give you some facts. First - DHS has an entire department of investigations whose one job is to track down and deal with cases of fraud. It does not matter if you report ONE example, or a hundred. However, you cannot simply say "I think that so-and-so is committing fraud". Rather, you have to give a little more specific information. For example, if you know someone who talks about the amount of aid they are getting by telling their caseworker that the baby-daddy is not in the home, but, you know for a fact that he is there more than half the week...that information will trigger an investigation. If you see someone trading their benefits for drugs or non-approved items, you have to tell DHS WHAT drugs/non-approved items are being gotten and how. If you know that a mother is getting a fair amount of cash, based on there being several childrend in the home,but you know for a fact that there are not that many kids in the house....tell DHS these facts. If you know a person who is receiving benefits, but is working full time....report it.
          The investigators at DHS have been doing this sort of thing for a long time, and, it does not take any time at all for them to find out if things are hinky. If nothing wrong is happening, then, the investigation is closed. If they find something...appropriate actions are recommended. Now, whether or not fraud is prosecuted is not under the control of DHS. That is the responsibility of the prosecutor's office. Too many of these folks are in elected offices, and, will not bother with welfare fraud because it is not a sexy issue to include in their campaign commercials. Much more fun to do something high-profile, like going after murderers, paedophiles, etc.
          Finally, remember this: "All that is required for Evil to win is for good men to do nothing". If you really know seven folks that you have seen committing fraud, and you fail to report them, then, you are aiding and abetting in that fraud. Also, I would suggest that you have no right to complain about anything associated with the welfare system.
          I agree that opinions are unregulated and we all have the freedom to believe what we believe. However, the only opinions worth more than warm snail spit are those with a good basis in fact...not just random opinion.
            Pleasant dreams....