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Comment Vote With Your Wallet (Score 2) 202

by semilemon (#46814425) Attached to: Netflix Plans To Raise Prices By "$1 or $2 a Month"

I don't understand why everyone gets so upset when Netflix talks about raising its prices by a couple of dollars per month. I've been a subscriber for several years, and even with the limited selection available in Canada, the lack of advertising and unlimited on demand nature makes it worth way more than the equivalent cost of a few days of cable/satellite.

Sometimes you have to vote with your wallet, even if that means overpaying a little bit for a product/service that you see the potential in and want to succeed. The content producers will follow the money (eventually). If you're not willing to pay an additional $24 per year, then how badly do you really want to see more content on Netflix?

Comment Re:Gee, so only a year of screaming (Score 1) 387

I agree. The main complaint I seem to hear is that it takes up the entire screen. I don't find it that big of a deal, but if you do, just use Win+S. Then you get a bar that only takes up a portion of the desktop and allows you to search for whatever you are looking for, just like the old start menu.

Comment Re:But not to give them a chance to correct it fir (Score 1) 404

While I agree with you insofar as relying too heavily on "nobody knows this attack vector exists so its as good as patched" provides a false sense of security, I don't think saying it is "no security at all" is any more accurate. For example, a lot of people keep a spare key for their vehicle hidden somewhere using a magnetic key holder in case they accidentally lock themselves out. While this is in fact an exploitable vulnerability, hiding a key somewhere on the car is still more secure than leaving a spare key inside the door lock in case you lock yourself out.

Submission + - Canada Revenue Agency To Tax BitCoin Transactions (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by semilemon
semilemon writes: The Canada Revenue Agency has started paying attention to BitCoin transactions, as it says users will have to pay tax on all transactions using the currency. From the article, "The CRA told the CBC there are two separate tax rules that apply to the electronic currency, depending on whether they are used as money to buy things or if they were merely bought and sold for speculative purposes. "Barter transaction rules apply where BitCoins are used to purchase goods or services," Canada Revenue Agency spokesman Philippe Brideau said in an email. In this situation, that means whatever you've received in exchange for your $1 worth of vegetables must be documented as a taxable gain of at least $1 somewhere. When it comes to trading BitCoins for profit, the tax man says there are tax implications there, too. "When BitCoins are bought or sold like a commodity, any resulting gains or losses could be income or capital for the taxpayer depending on the specific facts," ruled the CRA.

Comment Re:Please tell me it wont be an accurate replica.. (Score 1) 292

by semilemon (#43035063) Attached to: Plans Unveiled For Full Scale Replica of the Titanic
I agree, I would be much more interested in this project if it was a stationary, exact replica on land that operated as a museum. Of course, it would not have to be totally complete (ie. only a few completed staterooms, with the rest of them just being closed doors). This would allow you to tour all parts of the ship (the bridge, the engine rooms, the Turkish baths, etc.) just as if you were on the real Titanic.

Comment Agree 100% With The End of the Summary (Score 1) 295

by semilemon (#42945549) Attached to: Windows 7 Still Being Sold On Up To 93% of British PCs

I agree 100% with the end of the summary.

I've been using Windows 8 for about a month now, and as time goes on I'm finding myself using the new "Modern UI" for more and more of my day-to-day browsing, music, etc. However, even as somebody who is very computer literate, it took about an hour to get accustomed to the dual-UI setup and figure out the most common mouse/touchpad gestures.

While for me that hour wasn't a big deal, as I was expecting to spend some time learning the new interface, for the average user I can see the process being very frustrating. While a quick Google search yields hundreds of sites with keyboard shortcuts, hints, and video tutorials of how the new interface works, many "average" computer users probably won't even think to search for these tutorials like I did.

Honestly, I think most users will like the new UI, once they invest the time to learn it. And even if you do hate it, just uninstall/unpin all of the modern apps from the start screen, pin your most-used desktop apps to the start screen, and you'll almost never see "Modern UI" except when using the start screen. The real problem is that Microsoft's "introduction" to its complete rethink of how you interact with your computer is an animation showing you to move your mouse to the top right-hand corner of the screen to bring up the Charms bar. If they gave the option to "Click here for a tour of the new Windows interface", I think the average computer user would find things a lot less frustrating and would be more welcoming of the new Windows user interface.

Comment Why So Many Problems? (Score 3, Interesting) 378

by semilemon (#39949809) Attached to: Overheated Voting Machine Cast Its Own Votes
I'm not particularly knowledgeable on the subject, so I'm hoping someone here can provide some insight. Why do electronic voting systems seems to have so many problems? Yes, they obviously need to be designed for 100% accuracy, but computers and electronic equipment take care of so many other, more complicated operations like flying aircraft and recording financial transactions, all of which should be much more complex but require the same level of accuracy and precision as counting votes. Are voting machines really that bad, are news reports skewing my opinion of them, or am I just unaware of how many problems a paper ballot system has?
Government

How Apple Sidesteps Billions In Global Taxes 599

Posted by Soulskill from the floats-like-a-butterfly-stings-like-duty-free dept.
An anonymous reader writes "An article at the NY Times explains the how the most profitable tech company in the world becomes even more profitable by finding ways to avoid or minimize taxes. Quoting: 'Apple's headquarters are in Cupertino, Calif. By putting an office in Reno, just 200 miles away, to collect and invest the company's profits, Apple sidesteps state income taxes on some of those gains. California's corporate tax rate is 8.84 percent. Nevada's? Zero. ... As it has in Nevada, Apple has created subsidiaries in low-tax places like Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the British Virgin Islands — some little more than a letterbox or an anonymous office — that help cut the taxes it pays around the world. ... Without such tactics, Apple's federal tax bill in the United States most likely would have been $2.4 billion higher last year, according to a recent study (PDF) by a former Treasury Department economist, Martin A. Sullivan. As it stands, the company paid cash taxes of $3.3 billion around the world on its reported profits of $34.2 billion last year, a tax rate of 9.8 percent."

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