September 30, 2005 – 8:19 am
Most states charge sales tax for “products”, but not for “services”. So, if you go to the store and buy a can of beans, you are charged tax. If you hire a lawn service to cut your grass, you are not.
Due to the way that commercially sold computer software is typically licensed, most states didn’t charge sales tax on it. Until fairly recently, anyways. I vaguely remember grumbling about it about ten years ago when Alabama changed their tax codes to allow for sales tax on software. After all, according to the software publishers, you don’t “own” software, you only license the right to use it. [...]
Oh, dear Lord. Somebody please kill this weed before it grows: Lawmakers move to extend daylight-saving time
House and Senate negotiators on an energy bill agreed to begin daylight-saving time three weeks earlier, on the second Sunday in March, and extend it by one week to the first Sunday in November.
I. Hate. Daylight. Savings. Time.
First of all, it’s an outmoded idea. [...]
Our hearts go out to all of those affected by the terrorist bombings in London earlier this morning. Those of us in the U.S. know what you’re feeling right now.
I’ll never understand what terrorists hope to accomplish by their cowardly acts. History has shown time and time again that terrorism is an ineffective tool for change. Rather than weakening their enemies, the attackers will galvanize their victims and their allies. . [...]
December 15, 2004 – 12:16 pm
The world’s smallest Peer-to-Peer application, written in 15 lines of Python code: TinyP2P.
TinyP2P is a functional peer-to-peer file sharing application, written in fifteen lines of code, in the Python programming language. I wrote TinyP2P to illustrate the difficulty of regulating peer-to-peer applications. Peer-to-peer apps can be very simple, and any moderately skilled programmer can write one, so attempts to ban their creation would be fruitless.
Peer-to-Peer (AKA “P2P”) applications make it easy for people to share files over a network. [...]
November 3, 2004 – 9:32 am
Susan and I did our civic duty yesterday and voted. We had heard of long lines in many areas, with waits up to six hours. But at our polling location, we didn’t have any wait at all. We arrived around 4:00 p.m., parked in one of the handful of empty spaces, filled out our paperwork, showed our identification, and voted using the newfangled electronic voting machines (yes the controversial Diebold machines). It only took us a few minutes to choose our candidates, review the local referendums, review our choices, and commit our votes.
As I write this, the results still aren’t firm, and all eyes are on Ohio. [...]
December 15, 2003 – 10:19 am
Surprisingly enough, not with a bang, but with a whimper.
Saturday, U.S. soldiers found the former leader of Iraq hiding in a hole in the ground about 6-8 feet deep. . [...]
September 18, 2003 – 9:17 am
Tim Bray has some comments about Software Patents from the Inside. While I disagree with the concept of software patents, in general, his observations are very reasonable. This quote did catch my eye, though:
“Patents and Open Source are violently incompatible.”
March 18, 2003 – 10:20 am
A quick paraphrasing of President Bush’s speech last night: “Saddam has two days to get out of Bagdad, or I’m going to put him in a box.”
December 13, 2002 – 9:05 am
From Hixie, some info on the case against Jon Johansen, the kid who caused the DVD encryption debacle to make the international news:
It’s been reported all over the place, of course, but this week Oslo has seen the opening of the trial of Jon Lech Johansen, who, as far as I can tell, is accused of trying to watch a DVD that he had bought.
Yeah, we can’t have that. [...]
November 6, 2002 – 9:02 am
Music giant BMG is apparently poised to implement copy protection in all of its European CDs. I bet that a lot of Europeans can expect to have problems with it, despite BMGs claims that the CDs are Red Book compliant.
I’m not in Europe, but I already have a couple of CDs that give me trouble, despite the fact that (to my knowledge) they do not contain copy protection. The CDs in question are Barnaked Ladies’ “Maroon” and Rush’s “Vapor Trails” (and I think there was a third one that gave me trouble, but I can’t think of what it was at the moment). [...]
