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Comment: Re:Because IRS has never heard of exchange servers (Score 2) 372

Just like you can say that there has never been a oil pipeline that has been rejected either. By not quickly approving simple applications and letting them linger for years - you effectively reject the application, without the political backlash of having to actually do it. I would assume it was a simple progressive organization that didn't qualify for the tax break - it was quickly rejected so they can fix their problem, or get back to doing what they should be doing.

Comment: Assume the unemployment rate for programmers is 5% (Score 1) 466

Only slightly under the 6.3% average for the whole US. Given that - there are 1/2 of all of the 1/10 programmers getting jobs somewhere.
I am going for a fairly static distribution, in reality - I am betting there are very VERY few 9-10/10 programmers (well under the 10% that they represent) and a lot more 3-7 programmers and then a tailing edge of people that just haven't gotten down the path.

Comment: Re:The simpler the better (Score 2) 1374

by MerlynEmrys67 (#46891089) Attached to: "Smart" Gun Seller Gets the Wrong Kind of Online Attention
Kids should be taught how to safely use tools. In my grandfathers day it wasn't unusual for the boys to bring their 22 rifles to school to put into the back wall of the classroom so they could shoot squirrel/rabbit/??? on the way home from school.
Contrast that with my daughter where if I accidentally pack a butter knife into her school lunchbox, she would get expelled from school. Frankly there were a lot fewer school shootings in my grandfather's day. Go figure.

Comment: Re:Joke of a comparison (Score 3, Interesting) 79

by MerlynEmrys67 (#46846875) Attached to: How the Code War Has Replaced the Cold War
He may know what he is talking about, or maybe he just doesn't understand how good Kissinger was at his job. A master of a profession makes it look so easy that even someone with mediocre grades at Yale (He was outscored by W. after all - and see what people think of him) can do it. Turns out there are a lot of subtleties that I don't think our current batch of diplomats understand.

Comment: Re:$2 Billion (Score 1) 271

I don't believe the 2Billion dollar amount for a second. 2 Billion seems like a very VERY large number. Now lets do some simple math. Divide that by 50 and that is 40million available for each state. You might be able to protect Wyoming for 40 Million, but I doubt you could protect Alaska (construction costs are too high) and I doubt you could even begin to protect a city like San Jose, New York, Dallas, or Chicago for 40 Million (not even to mention the rest of those states).
The other interesting thing to think is protect against what... Yes, you could probably protect against a low yield EMP produced by a solar flare - however, there will be no protecting against a high yield nuke detonated over an area (where the EMP is the least of your worries). EMP is only one of the things that would need to be protected against - there is blast damage, fallout, fuel supplies... Yeah - if a high yield bomb goes off over the US we are all screwed, whether we spend 0 dollars, or 100Billion.

Comment: Re:Doing CTOs job for him (Score 1) 119

Were you asked to do something or were you asked if doing something is a good idea?

If you were asked to do something then fucking do it. Any sticker shock is the CTOs problem to explain.


Time to bring Goodwin's law out.
Just because you are a guard at a prison, doesn't mean that saying "I was just following orders" is a good defense. It is YOUR job to know details and question things that come out of people's mouths to determine if they are good for YOUR company. Many times the answer is, yes it is a good idea - you don 't have to pay for upgrades, maintenance, or other things people always seem to forget about... Other times, keeping things in house is where you want to be. You should be able to find out what is correct for your organization and make sure that is what happens.

Comment: I knew they weren't scientists (Score 1) 87

by MerlynEmrys67 (#46610819) Attached to: Crows Complete Basic Aesop's Fable Task

heavy objects sink in water

I will say an aircraft carrier is very heavy - but floats on water, what the authors meant to say was Dense objects sink in water, as even light grains of sand sink to the bottom.
You can thank the college of Phycology for the misunderstanding - when you read something like that in the first paragraph of the paper, makes me doubt anything else they have to say.

Comment: Re:Ssssure... (Score 1) 102

by MerlynEmrys67 (#46508901) Attached to: Dorian Nakamoto Officially Denies That He Created Bitcoin
I hate the blood sucking leaches that are today's legal professionals. Why should I have to hire a lawyer to say I didn't do something that I didn't do. Should the rest of the 300 Million Americans that didn't invent Bitcoin hire lawyers to deny it.
By the way - when did you stop beating your Significant other?

Comment: Re:We need to stop big tax dodgers useing loop hol (Score 1) 300

You would be lucky to be in as low of a tax bracket as 50%
28% Federal
9% State
13% Social Security
4% Medicare
That tax bracket hits right in the middle of your average tech worker, especially in high tax/High property value areas like California.
I purposely did not include things that are not taxed as a percentage of income like property taxes/sales taxes/use/car/gas/etc taxes - they can easily punch that value up another 10%

Comment: Re:Inheritence = Lottery Winnings (Score 1) 300

So I have a large family farm. I have been working it for decades with my loyal son. We have a good life supporting our families. Now because I die - the farm that is worth 20 Million dollars in land value gets taxed at 9 Million dollars. My son doesn't have that kind of money - so he has to sell off 1/2 the land (assume he needs to keep the farm equipment) to pay the estate taxes. Now he has a farm that can support him, but not his children's families.
We keep talking about the "super rich" that don't have problems with these things (in fact they don't pay death taxes - they pay lawyers to not pay the death taxes), why don't we talk about hard working people that have built capital in a family business that has to shutdown when they die rather than let their heirs enjoy the benefits of their labor.
Do you see the Son as winning the jackpot?
I see a family that has built equity from the land/small business - wanting to let their children have a good, hard earned living.

Comment: Re:People so rich who don't act in societal intere (Score 1) 300

Can you define what "Societal Interest" is?
As far as I can tell - everyone's definition of "Societal Interest" is what is best for them, not always what is best for other people. Which is more important to the society? Animal Welfare, Health Care/Disease researc, Education, the Arts, the Poor? How do we as a Society determine that? How should that interest be enforced? Wouldn't it be easier (and therefor more efficient) if people voted with their wallets and donated money to causes that they determined were the most effective at solving the problems that are important to themselves?
This has the other effect of removing the incentive to bribe politicians into giving more money to each particular type of charity (so more money ends up going to the people being helped instead of lobbyists working to get the government to give more money to cause X). It also significantly reduces the amount of overhead going to people doing things like "Grant Writing" that don't help - but are just simply overhead. I actually cringe at thinking what percentage of "academic research" budgets go to such tasks instead of actually doing research.

Comment: Anyone remember the Trees? (Score 1) 516

I always think about this when someone wants everything to be equal - Thank you A. G. for quoting Rush so well So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights.
"The oaks are just too greedy;
We will make them give us light."
Now there's no more oak oppression,
For they passed a noble law,
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe, and saw.
Rush - "The Trees" Nothing like using more H1-Bs to bring down EVERYONE's living wage to make us all more equal. For my next magic trick I will tax the rich at 90% and watch our income tax receipts go to 0.

Comment: Re:wrong (Score 2) 606

by MerlynEmrys67 (#46336505) Attached to: 'Google Buses' Are Bad For Cities, Says New York MTA Official
He is badmouthing poor Transit infrastructure planning that he is responsible for and asking for people to pay his company for substandard service that can be provided with cheaper alternatives.
I also think it is funny that he is referring to south bay as the suburbs of San Francisco. Realize that San Jose (South Bay) is a larger city than San Francisco, Cupertino (Apple) is just minutes from downtown San Jose, and within a mile of the actual city border. San Fransisco has INSANE property values and would be very difficult for a company to build a building that can host 10K+ employees there. It was hard enough for apple to get permission to build in Cupertino.
To say the younger crowd is interested in living and working in the city isn't quite right. Many of the younger crowd prefers to live and work in the "suburbs" to the convenience of living, shopping and parking all without the burdens of getting mugged, having my car broken into and having streets that smell of urine. Frankly NYC and SF are both hellholes to be tolerated at best. I would never live in San Francisco as it is way too expensive, the schools are bad - and frankly anything that is worth going into the city for I can drive there, enjoy the evening and then Go home to a nice safe place in south bay.
