Sorry but from an outside perspective that just sounds nuts. So let's take your 'worst case' - $129M overall cost making it $434 per entry - you're saying there are only 297,235 (129M / 434) tax payers in the US? A quick search from me shows the number of filings to be at 145M+. If everyone could file for free, that $129M would be 88c per person.

And I'm speaking from experience. I'm in the UK. I've recently filed my annual self-assessment tax. I used the free service on the UK government web site and the thing that took the longest was working out how much to put as charity donation. Whole thing done in less than an hour and a half.

I seriously cannot comprehend the approach where you have to pay to be able to pay someone. It's...well...it's nuts.

I genuinely don't understand why slashdots downvote mafia attacked my former post as troll. Unless I miss my guess I have a fair couple of stalkers that just downvote every post I make, and then pepper my comments with bottish AC replies about Trump and No Kings. :|

Anyway, to your point, if you haven't seen it, I offer for your amusement something relative to your comment from the great Trevor Moore:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

"More people need to spend more time trying to enjoy their own lives instead of obsessing over what other people are doing."

Well jesus christ man, if we can't spend our idle hours scolding other people for what they wear/do/drive/eat/believe, what's the fucking point of social media even FOR then?

Well yes, if we radically change the rules about how we measure things, we can successfully re-apportion blame to the US, the inventor of slavery, war, and all things bad.

Congrats!

With a president who solves an existential threat by finding the best expert he can find, and using his own formidable political skills and charisma to run interference for that expert.

Seriously, Comacho was a meathead, but Iâ(TM)d vote for him.

I work in localization. Technical writing is often easier for machine-translation systems, because the writing is (ideally) deliberately clear, concise, and structured.

The terminology issue you mention can be addressed at least partially by feeding any such machine-translation system a list of words and phrases to keep as-is in the target text.

Fiction, meanwhile, often involves complicated and subtle wordplay, which no AI system is going to handle very well.

Already thrilled to learn what erotic literature..

.. will read like, after it has been dragged through the automatic translation process. Even the automatically translated descriptions of sex toys on Aliexpress are hilarious, and those are really short and not sophisticated.

I can see it now:

"I put on my robe and wizard hat..."

How about giving the choice for an analog control and taking the wasted extra money spent on computer chips + design + digital display and making the motor last longer?

I would love it if some manufacturer would produce tried-and-true analog designs without all the extra add-on, planned-obsolescence, enshittified bullshit. I suspect this approach would do quite well in the market, at least in certain product categories -- blenders, ovens, washing machines, etc.

Actually, this reminds me to take a look at Lehman's catalog, see what they're getting up to these days. I bumped into them quite by accident ages ago when a relative was living in Amish country. Poking around their website just now, I see things like ovens and hand-cranked mixers. A bit pricey, but no "ET phone home" rubbish and solid workmanship.

• https://www.lehmans.com/

(Crikey, slashcode still doesn't render bulleted lists correctly. How stupidly embarrassing.)

China calling Elon. Come in, Elon! :)

It's weird how the Pedophile Trash always want to argue the definition. Sex trafficking of minors means pedophilia, you disgusting subhuman worthless kidraper.

Honestly, the problem was Co. v. Riggs (203 U.S. 243 (1906)) that established corporations be treated legally like people.

The moment this happened it was the beginning of the exoneration of c-suites from the consequences of their actions. I suspect that if these individuals' freedom and wealth were liable for the consequences of their choices, the subsequent century would have played out rather differently.

I think we all know nothing good ever came from that place.

REPUBLICANS demanded the date, and Trump promised to veto the law without it. Shut up and shoot yourself you Lying Treasonous America Hating Klan Shitbag Retardican.

This is false, you Lying Klan Fuckface. REPUBLICANS insisted on the timer and Trump promised to veto unless the timer was in the law. This is very clear from the record, just as clear as the fact that every one of you America-Hating Retarded Repukelikan Klan Shitbags is incapable of honesty.

The Pro-Lie Nazi Republicans are incapable of being honest. It's that simple. Every one of them is a disgusting, inhuman malignant sociopath.