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Comment Done Deal (Score 1) 326

Indiana already charges its residents tax (state, county, and local) via their income tax forms, for all on-line and distance sales on which Indiana Sales Tax was not paid. Virtually EVERY state (as far as I know) collects the equivalent of its sales tax on purchases of things like automobiles made out of state and not taxed a point of sale.

Comment Assumption: (Score 1) 688

This assumes, of course, that the person can probably count above 10 with their shoes on. An assumption, by the way, which I've found is not always justified in some of the coders (and even some design engineers) I ran across during a career that spanned five decades in the business (OK, so just barely five).

Comment Re:Libraries (Score 1) 390

Do you make money as a writer? If you did, would you favor the publishers which would pay you or the libraries which will not?

No, in fact, I don't. I can tell you, however, that one of the most successful American genre writers in recent years, Robert A. Heinlein, was an unabashed partisan of libraries, and even in his years of declining health accepted as many speaking invitations from the American Library Association and its affiliates as he possibly could. He wrote several times, I believe, of his reasons for his stance on this. He did not face the issue of ebooks ... that came after his time. But I doubt that it has invalidated any of his points in favor of libraries.

Comment Re:Not to worry. (Score 1) 189

Don't look at me. I donated to Senator Paul's campaign two years ago. I don't think the Republic is in any peril of falling any time soon ... unlike a number of left-wing groups, who were certain (in 1972) that Nixon would never allow an election to take place in 1976 and would make himself permanent ruler of the country. Little did they know that Nixon would not even be a factor, except as a very bad example, in the '76 election.

Comment Re:Not to worry. (Score 1) 189

Can't wait until some future President (a la Nixon, and then some) declares the Democratic Party to be a terrorist organization. After all, if they persist in opposing THE President, they are obviously coming together to overthrow the established order, aren't they?

Comment Re:Sports and Academics (Score 2) 108

Our culture likes to push this idea that if you're smart you must be an unathletic weakling. It's self-fulfilling. We tell kids that if they're smart, they'd just humiliate themselves by trying out for a team. They believe it, don't try out, and become weak for lack of exercise.

Funny, we seem to have missed that message. My senior year in high school, the lead player on the state high school basketball championship team (kind of a state religion here in Indiana), who also won the Arthur Trester Award that year as the outstanding individual player was also a National Merit Scholarship Finalist. In fact, the coach coach of that team attributed their victory at least in part to the fact that his team had the highest GPA and highest standardized test scores of any team in the Final Four.

Comment GREAT Idea (Score 1) 229

When I lived in Chicago (until 2002) the Jewel Food chain (largest chain of groceries) had a service (affiliated or not I'm not sure) called PeaPod that delivered fresh food from their stores ... pretty much anything they stocked ... for a reasonable fee (plus a tip, if you had any sense and planned to order again). This was a GREAT service. I really missed them when we moved, and would welcome a similar service in my area.

Comment Securing Encryption Keys (Score 1) 390

One method I used for this some years ago when I was traveling on business was to create a very lengthy random encryption key and have it written down only at my home (protected against searches by constitutional provisions not yet invalidated by court rulings) and sent to someone in the place to which I was traveling (who had no idea what it was, or even where it was once I got there). I NEVER MEMORIZED IT. Truly. It meant, of course, that my computer was useless en route, but it was secure from anyone's prying eyes because I could NEVER be forced to reveal information I did not possess. Not that I was ever stopped for that or anything else. Had a LOT more trouble when I travelled with my wife, because she was disabled and had to ride a mobility scooter, which needed special security precautions.

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