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Comment Re:All your tax avoidance schemes are done (Score 1) 293

Jane Q has made some quite relevant points.

This is a power grab at the expense of small businesses. The states have long-failed at enforcing their use taxes.
Who is lined up for legislating this "fair tax" ? Amazon, WalMart, Governors, Municipalities, National Retailers who have nexus most everyplace anyway.
Against ? Ebay and small schmucks like me with one place of business.
This court action is now a little long in the tooth. Amazon has already folded in California.
Congress loves playing the States' benefactor.

We sell a product that has been sold by catalog for a very long time.
If a customer calls the 800 number, where does the sale occur ?
Our servers are in another state. Where does the sale occur?
A large percentage of our customers purchase our product for resale. They are responsible to collect the Local sales tax on their selling price, not purchase price.
In-state resellers must provide a kind of form that attests that they possess a valid "Sales and Use Tax Permit". No one can figure it out.
People mistakenly give us their Federal ID number, Drivers License number all kinds of stuff. We are responsible if audited as to why we did not collect sales tax on these transactions.
Multiply this by 45 states. So not only will small business like ours be collecting taxes for other States, but having to police the resale laws for these States when the taxes are NOT to be collected. Gives an advantage to in state vendors.

We recognize that we are probably on the losing side of this issue.
If Congress manages to pass this mess it would be nice if they would protect us newly minted tax collectors from incessant out-of-state audits.

Comment Gelernter foretold this too (Score 1) 64

Most users have set up their own version of this :
- their email client is their chronological filing cabinet. The user can sort, file , flag and archive their historical records. The email client is a database of personal records where the user has meaningful control. And they like it!

Twenty years ago Gelernter proposed "lifestreams" where your entire set of data, assets and transactions would be available to you from any network node at all times.

What kind of actions/ transactions are the most immediately critical to an individual user ? Bank transactions. Security and privacy issues are and will continue to be constant.

Seeing large CS ideas move from the abstract to broad societal usage is pretty cool.

As long as I can find that critical email attachment from 2009.

Comment Henry Dreyfuss's masterpiece (Score 2) 106

The SX-70 is one of the greatest works of industrial/product design, ever. Henry Dreyfuss's masterpiece.
IF we taught design as required unit in art in public schools, the work of Raymond Lowey, BelGeddes, Dreyfus , Noguchi, there would be many competators to Apple Inc.

Dreyfuss never designed a second rate anything. Look it up if you cannot name at least three famous examples of his work, you will be surprised. He said 'I don't do packaging' meaning that he needed to be involved from the very beginning of the design/engineering process. Do not expect an accomplished designer to put a sexed-up veneer on a piece of crap at the eleventh hour.

I have two of these cameras just crying for film stock. A thing that is just a pleasure to hold. Who directed the James Garner commercials for this camera ? Ahead of their time.

Windows

Microsoft Kills Support For XP SP2 315

Trailrunner7 writes "Microsoft's announcement this week that it is preparing to end support for machines running Windows XP SP2 not only represents a challenge for the thousands of businesses still running SP2, but also is the end of an era for both Microsoft and its customers. It wasn't until 2004 that the final release of XP SP2 hit the streets, but when it did, it represented a huge step forward in security for Windows users. It wasn't necessarily the feature set that mattered as much as the fact that the protections were enabled by default and taken out of the users' hands."
Image

Outsourcing Unit To Be Set Up In Indian Jail 249

littlekorea writes "Indian outsourcing firm Radiant Info Systems has found yet another way to lower wages — hiring data entry clerks from a local prison. Some 200 inmates will be paid $2.20 a day to handle manual data entry tasks for Radiant's BPO deals in a pilot for the scheme. Radiant execs told the BBC that the deal will provide skills to inmates when they are released from prison. No doubt they would also be due for a pay raise." They're going to need to cut wages if they want to be competitive with the 100,000 US prisoners who work for 25 cents an hour.
Google

Google Wins European Trademark Victory 39

adeelarshad82 writes "A European court has ruled in Google's favor, saying that allowing advertising customers to use the names of other companies as search keywords does not represent a trademark violation. The court also went on to say that Google's AdWords program is protected by a European law governing Internet hosting services. Google's main line of defense was claiming that companies that want to extend trademark law to keywords are really interested in 'controlling and restricting the amount of information that users may see in response to their searches.' The decision is the first in a series of decisions from the court about how trademark rights can be used to restrict information available to users. Google is currently battling several trademark keyword cases in the US, including a case against Rosetta Stone, Inc."
Biotech

Organ Damage In Rats From Monsanto GMO Corn 766

jenningsthecat writes "A study published in December 2009 in the International Journal of Biological Sciences found that three varieties of Monsanto genetically-modified corn caused damage to the liver, kidneys, and other organs of rats. One of the corn varieties was designed to tolerate broad-spectrum herbicides, (so-called 'Roundup-ready' corn), while the other two contain bacteria-derived proteins that have insecticide properties. The study made use of Monsanto's own raw data. Quoting from the study's 'Conclusions' section: 'Our analysis highlights that the kidneys and liver as particularly important on which to focus such research as there was a clear negative impact on the function of these organs in rats consuming GM maize varieties for just 90 days.' Given the very high prevalence of corn in processed foods, this could be a real ticking time bomb. And with food manufacturers not being required by law to declare GMO content, I think I'll do my best to avoid corn altogether. Pass the puffed rice and pour me a glass of fizzy water!"

Comment Re:Design Patterns (Score 1) 517

Fowler's Refactoring is a remarkable work. Our team revisits it periodically to get our bearings . We throw more crap into the bit bucket because of this book.

Books that address theory rather than technical implementation help you think more clearly.

Comment Re:Contrary to popular opinion... (Score 1) 604

One would hope that after so many years the developers have some ideas for functionality not included by the present employers.

Judges may be reluctant to enforce questionable non compete clauses that preclude some one from making a living using their given expertise.

Why not keep your jobs and develop and release the web version for free . Then when your employer goes belly up you can profit as consultants for users of the free version.

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