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Submission + - 800,000 Using HealthCare.gov Were Sent Incorrect Tax Data (nytimes.com)

Submitted by mpicpp
mpicpp writes: bout 800,000 taxpayers who enrolled in insurance policies through HealthCare.gov received erroneous tax information from the government, and were urged on Friday to hold off on filing tax returns until the error could be corrected.

The Obama administration, under heavy pressure from congressional Democrats, also announced that it would give several million people more time to buy health insurance so they could comply with federal law and avoid tax penalties.

The incorrect insurance information is used in computing taxes. Consumers can expect to receive corrected data in the first week of March. With the new data, officials warned, some taxpayers will owe more and some will owe less.

Officials said they did not know why the error had occurred.

Submission + - Stephen Hawking: Aggression has potential of destroying human civilization (techienews.co.uk)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: Aggression is one human failing that celebrity scientist Stephen Hawking would like to correct as it holds the potential of destroying human civilisation and even wipe humans off the planet. Hawking expressed his views while escorting Adaeze Uyanwah — London’s Official Guest of Honour — around London's Science Museum. Uyanwah asked Hawking what human shortcomings he would alter, and which virtues he would enhance if this was possible. To this he replied: "The human failing I would most like to correct is aggression. It may have had survival advantage in caveman days, to get more food, territory, or partner with whom to reproduce, but now it threatens to destroy us all. A major nuclear war would be the end of civilization, and maybe the end of the human race."

Comment Re:Hahahaha good luck (Score 1) 126

by Nail (#37593982) Attached to: The Nine Circles of IT Hell

It's too bad people today have conflicting and insane ideas of what constitutes "socially irresponsible".

And is it really the fault of everyone else that a planned economy in the Soviet Union didn't take off like a jet plane and so enjoy the grand successes of all the other planned economies of the world? No and hehe.

Maybe it was just removing the decision making process, and the personal freedom required, far away from those that would directly benefit from making "good" decisions. Maybe.

Comment Re:Got my vote (Score 1) 681

by Nail (#37413694) Attached to: US House 'Creator' of TSA Wants To Kill It
Yeah, because there are no cities with more than one airport available. Oh, wait ...

Do you really wonder which entity has the ability to make sure you "go f___ yourself": 1) a private security company or airline, or 2) a department of the federal government? Because I don't.

Comment Thank You Mozilla! (Score 1) 284

by Nail (#34960314) Attached to: Mozilla Flips Kill-Switch On Skype Toolbar

"Given the extreme popularity of Skype, this has ramifications for millions of users"

The only one that matters: now some browser tasks will complete 300 times faster than before.

I don't like it when a installation program wants me to install some browser related thing by default ("uncheck the box"), much less give me no choice in the process. These things collect like dirt on your browser.
Hardware

Startup's Submerged Servers Could Cut Cooling Costs 147

Posted by timothy from the alliteration-alternation dept.
1sockchuck writes "Are data center operators ready to abandon hot and cold aisles and submerge their servers? An Austin startup says its liquid cooling enclosure can cool high-density server installations for a fraction of the cost of air cooling in traditional data centers. Submersion cooling using mineral oil isn't new, dating back to the use of Fluorinert in the Cray 2. The new startup, Green Revolution Cooling, says its first installation will be at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (also home to the Ranger supercomputer). The company launched at SC09 along with a competing liquid cooling play, the Iceotope cooling bags."
Government

Obama Administration Withholds FoIA Requests More Often Than Bush's 601

Posted by timothy from the no-conspiracy-necessary-note dept.
bonch writes "Agencies under the Obama administration cite security provisions to withhold information more often than they did under the Bush administration. For example, the 'deliberative process' exemption of the Freedom of Information Act was used 70,779 times in 2009, up from the 47,395 of 2008. Amusingly, the Associated Press has been waiting three months for the government to deliver records on its own Open Government Directive."

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