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Comment Re:It's texas. he could have yeeted the shitbird (Score 1) 132

If the father had shot the kidnapper during the rescue he would have a good argument that he reasonably perceived an imminent threat to himself and his daughter. On the other hand, if the father had pulled a Gary Plauche on the kidnapper I doubt they could have a found a jury that would convicted him for murder.

Comment Required reading (Score 1) 179

"The feeling of Power" by Isaac Asimov
https://ia600806.us.archive.or...

THE FEELING OF POWER
by Isaac Asimov
Worlds of Science Fiction, February 1958
.
Introduction:
Inspiration moves in strange paths. As we look farther and farther into the future, it
becomes possible to ask stranger and stranger questions. If society grows more and more
computerized, what happens if human beings forget how to do simple arithmetic?

Comment I never worked FOR Cognizant... (Score 4, Interesting) 104

...but I did work WITH Cognizant on a mutual project. They were the most incompetent engineers I've ever run across.

It was a simple project, just a small web site launch. Windows server, .NET based CMS, and a MS SQL backend. Easy. It should have taken me a couple of hours at most. Cognizant, however, ran the client's network and wouldn't allow me direct access to the server. I had to coach their guys through the rollout. And that's fair enough; they had no reason to trust me. But, it turned out that I knew more about MSSQL than their "SQL expert", and I know just enough to run a small website CMS. I had to teach him how to restore a database and create SQL users.

The rollout took three days, finishing late on a Friday. I got a call early the next day from the so-called "SQL expert" while I was feeding my infant daughter. He had been messing around with the URL Rewrite module and broke the simple Regex statements, again, taking the site down, again. The guy was begging me to help him, so I sent him the correct Regex, which he couldn't install correctly. I had to call my company's account exec for the client to make Cognizant stop harassing me.

Comment Re:Illegal tax laws ? (Score 3, Informative) 189

It happens all the time. In the US States pass laws that are unconstitutional, or that would override federal laws, and these state laws are struck down. Cities pass ordinances that are overruled by state laws. In the European Union, member countries' laws have to fit within the EU's laws.

Comment Re:thats a lot (Score 1) 189

Apple is being fined on approximately 111 billion Euros they shielded from taxes between 2004 and 2014. They have been fined 13 Billion Euros. That's only 11.7%.

Ireland's corporate tax rate on foreign income is 25% (https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/ireland/corporate/taxes-on-corporate-income)

Apple got off light.

Comment Re:Ireland isn't sovereign (Score 1) 189

No, it wasn't. Ireland didn't cut Apple a deal. It was tax evasion

There was an open secret than any multinational company with valuable intellectual property could take advantage of called "The Double Irish". It relied on a difference in the way the US and most companies levy corporate profits and how Ireland used to do it. When set up correctly, a corporation would pay ZERO taxes on their profits. No taxes to the US. No taxes to Ireland. No taxes anywhere.

Comment Re:Well, if your own companies can't be successful (Score 5, Insightful) 189

No, not at all. It was a tax dodge known as the "Double Irish", in the accounting biz. Ireland did or does have lower than average corporate tax rates, but this was something else entirely.

You can read up on the concept here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Also, the "Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich": https://www.investopedia.com/t...

In a nutshell, for about two decades US companies could used a difference in the way the US and Ireland tax corporate profits. In the US, corporate income taxes are levied based on where the profit is realized. Ireland used to levy taxes based on the where a corporation's seat of control. Apple had a subsidiary in Ireland that held ownership of all Apple's intellectual property (patents, trademarks, etc.). Then, they would pay that subsidiary hefty fees for use of said IP. As a result, the American Apple division would see very low profits because they were paying the Irish IP holding company every bit of spare change they could. The Irish subsidiary owed no taxes to Ireland because it was owned by a foreign entity.

The upside for heavily tech invested companies, like Apple, Google, and Microsoft, is that they could shield their corporate profits from all income taxes.

Comment Re:No good dead goes unpunished (Score 1) 53

No, tips are not the same as a purchase. A purchase is an agreed upon fee for product or service. A tip is a gratuity paid after the fact as acknowledgement of good service. In an employer/employee setting, an employer is forbidden from keeping a percentage of tips. Understandably, this is not a an employer/employee situation, but it illustrates that a tip is not the same as an in-app purchase. I'd like to see the class-action suite by these teacher vs Apple and see how it shakes out.

I'm not very familiar with the Insight Timer app, but I see that they offer a subscription service, and the app creator shares that revenue with the teachers. Apple is fully justified to collect on subscriptions. But personally, I see Apple's 30% cut on donations and tips as ethically indefensible.

However, last year the 9th Circuit Court ruled that Apple was in violation of the California’s Unfair Competition Law by forbidding and preventing 3rd party payment processors. What the app maker really needs to do is to build in links to a payment processor that charges less for in-app purchases

Comment Re:lol not even a good faith effort (Score 1) 21

Or, Slack could, and hear me out here... charge a reasonable price for their service.

Slack starts at $7.25/user/mo, but realistically, businesses are going to go for the $12.50/user/mo option for the user ID sync.
Office 365 business standard is $12.50/user/mo for Office apps, email, Sharepoint, Teams, Azure AD, and one TB of storage per user in OneDrive.

Whether Microsoft's services are any good or not is well open for debate, but Slack needs to slash its prices if they want to compete. This legal action from Salesforce is just part of their corporate pricing strategy.

Comment Re:Be glad you're not on Windstream/Kinetic (Score 1) 131

I have Windstream, and I find them to be pretty darned good. Up until about 2015, I had Windstream DSL at 3Mb. Spectrum is in my area and was faster when it worked, but it would go down every day for hours at a time. The Windstream was at least stable at 3Mbit. Around 2015 Spectrum fixed their infrastructure and became stable, so I switched. About three years ago I discovered that Windstream had run fiber down my street. They offered me a 200Mbit symmetric connection for about $60 a month. I switched immediately and it's been a dream. Two months ago they bumped me up to 500Mbit symmetric for no charge. Speed testing pegs it at closer to 700Mbit. My bill has crept up to about $70 per month over the past few years, but the service is worth not dealing with Spectrum.

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