Posts by Fatman

Re: Actually, in the US, single programmers can not register as a company.

A 'single programmer' most certainly can form a corporation in any of the 50 states, so I would have to ask: ^{[citation needed]}.

In fact, said programmer could set up himself as an LLC (limited liability company) or either an "S" corporation or a "C" corporation. An "S" corporation provides for income and expense pass through to its owners before taxation (IOW the income passed to the owners is taxed only ONCE); while a "C" corporation is taxed before its dividends are passed on to the owners.

There are limits on the number and types of owners in a "S" corporation, while a "C" corporation do not have those limits. And, unlike an "S" corporation, whose yearly income and expenses MUST be passed to the owners; the "C" corporation can keep its profits "on the books" as retained earnings (see Apple for an example of a "C" corporation that does not distribute its profits to its owners).

Re: Im not an investor but....

Jeremy,

You espouse a simplistic view of investing, which does not exactly correlate with the truth.

There are two basic kinds of investors,

1) those in it for the short term gain, (aka Wall Street speculators) and

2) those in it for the long haul. Within this type there are two sub groups,

a) those expecting long term appreciation, and

b) those expecting regular cash payments (aka 'dividends').

Guess which group Wall Street backs? If you said those in it for the long haul; then you are in for a serious disappointment. Wall Street brokers make (some of) their money on brokerage commissions. The only way a broker gets a commission is when stock gets sold. Therefore, it is not in the best (financial) interests of Wall Street brokers if people just bought and held. The other way Wall Street types make their money is to buy low, and sell high, i.e. "ride the wave". Some Wall Street types use this as their business model (think "Bain Capital", you know, Mittens former "home"); and they have fucked the little guy over by getting capital gains taxed at a lower rate than ordinary income. "Capital gains" are taxed at a fixed rate (either 15 or 20%, I forget which); and guess what? Capital gains are not subject to Social Security taxes (because they (capital gains) are not considered "wages"). If you are a US citizen, how does it feel to be bent over by Wall Street?

<snark alert>

I mean, who do you expect to pay for all of those outlandish Wall Street ANALysts executive bonuses??

The suckers that buy into Wall Streets exhortations to play "throw the dice" with 401k plans, etc.

PT Barnum said it best. "There is a sucker born every minute."

If you parse the commentary out of Wall Street these days, it is all about current stock market value, which is the exact tact one would expect from someone whose vested interest is in getting investors panicked and cause volatility in a company's stock price. Panicked investors sell stock more quickly that a flock of iSheep can race for the door of the nearest iStore, when Apple comes out with their latest piece of shiny-shiny. Panicked investors allow emotion and FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) rule their investment decisions. Also, keep in mind, when Wall Street types gamble, it is with other people's money, they could give a shit if they were on the losing side, it ain't their cash at stake.

</snark alert>

Now, someone who is already retired is more likely a 'type 2b' investor (retirement income producing), as those dividend payments are usually a large proportion of their household income. Someone getting close (10 to 15 years away) to retirement is probably transitioning from a 'type 1' (short term capital appreciation) to a 'type 2a' investor (long term capital appreciation).

Herein lies the problem with publicly held companies, you have stockholders who have differing reasons for owning a company's stock. Pressure by (Loudmouth) Wall Street ANALysts are a distraction to management, they are unable to focus on long term goals, because the loudmouth short term, ride it up into the sky and bailout before it starts nosediving types make the most noise. If sufficient amounts of a company's stock is in the hands of those looking for a fast buck, and they can see to it that you get your ass kicked out of your cushy CEO seat if you cross them, there ain't no winners, except the loudmouths.

Perhaps, you can now more appreciate why Dell is in the process of going private. Once Dell is private, they can tell those loudmouths on Wall Street to go fuck themselves.

Apple is sitting on so much fucking money, they could buy up a few third world countries with their cash hoard. As others have pointed out, much of that cash lies offshore, and if it were to return to America, then the IRS will be waiting. Apple management would rather fuck their stockholders and the taxman by keeping that cash hoard overseas. The only cure is for the stockholders to rise up and demand that Apple's board force Cook to return some cash to the shareholders.

Now, are there ways that could be accomplished without returning cash to US shores? I would like to believe, that with all of those expensive shysters on Apple's payroll, that they could figure out some way to pull that off. So, it seems to me the refusal of Apple management to return cash to the stockholders is it way of giving the stockholders THE FINGER. They would rather sit on that cash hoard, then return some to their stockholders.

Perhaps it is time for Apple's stockholders to give Apple's management its walking papers.

RE: User Experience Architect.

We shot¹ ours, as she came up with this clusterfuck of a GUI for an in-house app that NO ONE LIKED. There was loads of bitching about it. When the (tech savvy) CEO says it is a piece of shit, then you know you are in trouble.

¹ "Shot" as in fired, not executed.

Now, can anyone describe a (L)user Experience Architect?

The consensus (at WROK PALCE) is that such a person works at Microsoft, in the Windows 8 department.

Re: I've

We threw that one up, against the wall, and came up with this:

That'd be good: Toilet Cleaner -> Waste Manager -> Hygiene Specialist -> Sanitation Engineer -> Health Systems Architect -> Epidemiology Doctor...->Asshole Manager

Now, why did that chick from HR suddenly turn beet red when that one got suggested??

Enquiring minds want to know?

Re: mentioning ... 'outsourcing' around a BOFH ... unfortunate fall down a lift shaft, right?

At WROK PALCE, mentioning outsourcing (of IT) usually leads to a visit to the roof top deck, and an invitation to take in the view from the plank.

Watch for falling MBA's is printed on a sign attached to the wall below the plank.

Re: Loosing ? Is that some sort of bowel problem ?

It most certainly is!

He is expressing his opinion of HP in some rather pointed terms, "HP's board is full of shit".

Re: Once again...

Is that you, Loverock Davidson????

Are you finished compiling your 2.4 kernel??

Re: your analogy

Is not that far off.

I would suggest the use of a car, for a better analogy.

You have transportation needs, and all kinds of cars (and trucks) are available.

You can buy one that closely meets your needs, providing the basic functionality, and few bells and whistles, or you can go 'all out' and buy a luxury sedan, or colossal SUV.

What the luxury sedan/SUV option comes with is added bloat and potentially extra costs. If you go to a vehicle with power windows, and the power motor quits, you have the expense of repairing/replacing the motor. Linus takes a similar tact to the kernel. Keep all of that UNNEEDED SHIT OUT OF THE KERNEL. If you actually NEED that bloat, include it elsewhere. Why clog up the kernel with it.

So, I applaud that guy. His motto is:

Keep

It

Simple,

Stupid!!!

Re: *sad* Let the down voting commence!

OK, you asked for it!!!!!!

-10000

Re: UEFI and secure boot is just a ploy to lock people into systems

When I first heard about this shit, I knew what was behind this nefarious move.

Microslop and its hardware partners trying their best to turn PCs into locked down appliances.

They saw how stupid sheeple bought into the locked down garden of smartphones, and realized that lockdown could be extended to PCs with some work.

It doesn't take a fucking rocket scientist to see who the winners are.

And, of course, we all know who loses in this contest.

Re: Cry me a river

If you really want to get their attention, stop using those fucking things.

Nothing gets a businessman's attention better than to watch his cash flow dry up.

Control is in the palm of your hand. Let your cash do some talking. Price too high? When your contract is over, ditch the dammed thing. Consumers do not owe these bastards a living.

RE: I would like to buy the 5 years together, but beancounter says no.

The solution is right out of a BOFH's playbook.

Invite the beancounter into the IT lair, and motivate said beancounter with the exposed ends of a mains cord. His experience will be 'shocking' (to say the least), and hopefully it will instill a newly found sense of respect (or fear as some might put it) for the powers of IT.

If that doesn't get the beancounter to see the error of his ways, then arrange for a "data corruption" to occur in his payroll records. A salary that mysteriously changes to ZERO; and resists any attempts to "correct" it.

I mean, use your imagination.

Re: "Use custom settings for history"

The problem with "Use custom settings for history" is that you average Joe (L)user doesn't have the mental capacity to figure them out; and even if Joe (L)user could figure them out; he is too fucking lazy to go ahead and do it.

Too many Joe (L)users consider a computer to be nothing more than a toaster, put in the bread, and push the lever down.

"Who gives a fuck about how it works." bleats Joe (L)user

And companies like Microsoft, introducing dumbed down interfaces for dummies do not help things.

I feel a competency exam should be a ore-requisite for owning a computer, and a license should be required for internet surfing.

Time to get the ignorant (as in lacking knowledge) assholes off of the 'net.

Re: Ghostery?

It, and Ad Block Plus along with No Script are three addons NO Firefox user should be without, if you value controlling your privacy and web browser. I have Firefox setup to ask each time a new cookie request is made, and I generally "Allow For Session" the majority of times.

Only certain sites get to keep cookies permanently (elReg is one).

Re: acronym

It also properly describes the DA in this case - a major TWAT!

Re: That marks the person making that decision as very, very stupid.

What the hell do you expect from damagement? Intelligence??

Re: Open-reel tape recorders could record at several speeds.

I recall once (in the '70's) visiting a commercial radio station that had 10.5" open reel machines in a rack, most of them ran at tape speed of either 7.5 or 15 ips (inches per second). A typical 2400 foot reel of of 1.5 mil tape gave you nominally 60 (@ 7-1/2 ips) or 30 (@ 15 ips) minutes of run time.

There was one machine all by itself, which was referred to as a `logger recorder`, whose purpose I later found out was to be able to "prove" that the station actually aired the commercials they billed for. It had a mono signal from the board in its left channel and a time code signal from WWV (IIRC) fed into its right channel. If memory serves me correctly, that machine ran at a molasses slow speed of 15/16 of a inch per second. The point was to be able to keep the number of reels needed to "archive" the day's transmissions down to 2 per day. Getting the tape wasn't much of a problem, since this station had its entire broadcast day on reel-to-reel tape, when a tape started to get a bit too worn for on air use, it got shunted to logger duty. Those cheapskates ran those tapes until the oxide was worn off.

Re: ...dynamic range compression, ... This is a plague. Radio stations tend to ... hide

Reminded me of a comment by a DJ regarding 'dead air', which was found in a station's operating manual:

"The VU meter shall never fall below -3dB for more than 3 seconds, otherwise listeners will think we have gone off the air. Failure to keep program audio at sufficient levels will result in your immediate termination."

That sort of shit convinced me that working in commercial radio was a mistake to be avoided; as it was infested with individuals whose competency was questionable. Much later on in life, did I learn the correct term to describe this type of individual: damagement.

$DEITY help us all, because they still walk the earth.

Re: ...much easier to break Windows, perhaps?

All you need is a little 'drive-by'......

Re: I'm confused

A cop in a helicopter is much more visible (and quite likely audible too) compared to a drone.

Another thing, helicopters have to have navigation lights and "tail numbers", drones probably do not.

It all amounts to "stealthiness".

Re: exempting law enforcement or other govt agencies

I would bet that such an exemption would be the first one listed.

My first thought was 'about fucking time'; but on reflection, I can see many legitimate uses for the technology. None of them involve intruding on someone's privacy.

If this even stands a chance of passing, then I feel that there are some exceptions that are in order, such as flying over public spaces, operating a drone over your own property (think farmers and anyone who owns large tracts of land) for starters. Flying your drone, with or without a camera in it, over a county/state/national park should NOT be a crime. A farmer, flying a drone over a his own acreage to check for loose livestock, intruders (poachers), crop observation, etc., should NOT be a crime!!!!

What I would not object to are provisions that restrict operation over backyards, etc; perhaps a requirement for some kind of identifying number (aka 'tail number') - to allow prosecution of those who choose to use their drone in unacceptable ways.