Forgot your password?

Comment: Re:How can you know "earnings" from eBay? (Score 1) 190

by astrotek (#36459164) Attached to: British Tax System Uses Web Robots To Find Cheats

In the USA, the IRS is going to require credit card processors to report what they pay businesses. It's very easy to spot a business that doesn't report or under reports their cash transactions. It was easy to cheat on but when the average business in the sector makes 20% of their revenue from cash and a 5% profit on their revenue they stand out like a sore thumb if they get greedy.

I'd imagine that the British are doing the same thing. They are just looking for people that fall outside the a standard deviation or two for whatever sector they are in.

Comment: Re:Some crazy conspiracy? (Score 1) 443

by astrotek (#27629601) Attached to: Why Is Connectivity So Cheap In Stockholm?

You could see an end to some toll roads. The toll would be paid for by the business the road benefits. Similar to how Vegas has cheap flights. If you were to build Vegas between LA and Phoenix and cut the time down from 8 hours to 2 hours and half way you could stop at a place of gambling, shopping and debauchery, would you take a plane (3 hours) or your car with a light rail augment(2 hours)?

Comment: Re:Cost $250 Retail for $300? (Score 1) 85

by astrotek (#27536765) Attached to: Leaked Pics of CrunchPad Elicit Progress Update

His math is a little off but the returned item still has a cost of 250 to the business plus the new one they send out for 250. So you have a maximum of a $500 cost for a return. The components dont cost that much but assuming you are making 50 per unit, every return costs a maximum of $400(old parts + new parts). So you need to sell 8(400/50) for every 1 that gets returned. Your margins now suck if more than 1 out of 30 get returned.

Comment: Why steal games (Score 1) 244

by astrotek (#25956435) Attached to: EMA Suggests Point-Of-Sale Game Activation To Fight Piracy

Seriously, stealing from a B&M? The only reason to steal a key is to play a multi-player game.

The solution for the PC is digital downloads. The xbox on the other hand is getting so cheap now that you can play burned games on the thing and make up the cost of buying a second xbox in single-player 3 games.

With torrents, rapidshare and usenet, why steal media from a store? I guess life is hardest for the stupid.


New Bill To Rein In DHS Laptop Seizures 311

Posted by kdawson
from the give-it-back-now dept.
twigles writes with news of a new proposed bill that seeks to curtail DHS's power to search and seize laptops at the border without suspicion of wrongdoing. Here is Sen. Feingold's press release on the bill. The new bill has more privacy-protecting safeguards than the previous one, which we discussed last month. "The Travelers Privacy Protection Act, a bill written by US Senators Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., would allow border agents to search electronic devices only if they had reasonable suspicions of wrongdoing. In addition, the legislation would limit the length of time that a device could be out of its owner's possession to 24 hours, after which the search becomes a seizure, requiring probable cause."
