* Posts by dux

13 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Feb 2010

New York Times tucks skirt behind stilted paywall

dux
Stop

unlimited current, not archive

Archive article limits apply to a historical archive of past articles... WSJ does the same kind of thing.

Amazon threatens Texas exit over tax bill

dux
Pint

optimism

$265m is the total estimated due sales tax.... not the estimated collectible amount.

Employer settles with Facebooker who called boss 'dick'

dux
Thumb Down

not really precedent

in order for this to be precedent, the case would require a judgement from the court.... since the company settled, it simply indicates that there is a fear that the court would have decided against the company.

Feds arrest man who juiced Google's 'just be evil' search

dux
Grenade

title required

At first I figured the author was a Brit.... but instead he is a West coast type... makes enough sense.

comments about firearms commonly serve to demonize a person who is being portrayed as violent and dangerous to build the story...

Amazon customer purchases protected by US Constitution

dux
Go

or maybe.... they don't want to do all the work

States with sales tax often have a state tax, county tax, and city tax. I would imagine that Amazon executives are not interested in increasing the compliance overhead required to keep track of all sales tax rates in the U.S. and monitoring for changes.

Besides, if I visit NC and show my out of state drives license, they don't waive the sales tax for me... so I see no problem with some residents neglecting to pay taxes on the $200 (arbitrary number) worth of purchases they made last year and didn't report to their tax collector.

Angry Birds addicts crash GetJar site

dux
Boffin

only remaining platform?

I guess Bill doesn't recognize some of the other players on the market.... where's my angry birds for Blackberry?

Apple now world's second-largest company

dux
Headmaster

accounting dictionaries... never carried by amateurs...

Roger - goodwill has nothing to do with market cap. It is a difference between book value and acquisition value of a company when it is being purchased by another entity. A premium paid in excess of the book value is 'goodwill' and represents the value of the companies name and possibly their future unrealized earning potential. The calculation has nothing to do with the market cap, since the market is not the purchasing interest in those situations.

Any goodwill Apple might have on their books would be from companies they acquired.

Apple staff allegedly sold secrets worth $1m

dux
FAIL

So many missed points (Bullseyed)

First off, an American pays taxes on income regardless of where they are located. When it gets truly entertaining is when multiple countries want to levy taxes because you are a citizen one place, and residing in another... and I promise you that the kickbacks received are not a 'gift', the company paying is expensing them just like compensation.

With regards to the highly unethical activity of supplying a vendor with insider information, the Apple employee had a clear fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of Apple in dealing with Vendors and competitors. Given that he willfully failed that responsibility, Apple would be able to pursue him for all kickbacks received (especially since there was likely a dual employment clause in his employment contract), and may even be able to persue compensation for salary paid when he was no longer acting as an agent of Apple.

'business is business' is something you say when you are in the mafia. double faced employees working against their employer for personal gain is not business, it is fraud.

RIM tries to placate everyone

dux

only two ends to the connection

If your blackberry e-mail server a corporate or private setup, there is little concern unless there truly is a 'master key' built into the system...

there are only two known ends to the pipe when it comes to blackberry encryption, and even though you may travel to Saudi, your e-mail will be encrypted from point A to point B.

only a concern for folks that use local e-mail services, or RIM supplied e-mail addresses.

India threatens to ban 1m BlackBerrys

dux
Thumb Up

Re: Forgive me - OK, forgiven

RIM servers are primarily in Canada, not the U.S.

All other locations with servers are secondary, as RIM is a Canadian company.

Personally, I think this should be viewed as a marketing opportunity where RIM could start selling 'node' servers for $100,000 each.

Russian spies dumped in Vienna after swap

dux
Pint

55 cent beer

tell me it isn't true!

you might be better off buying real beer and watering it down with some ice and everclear to get the same effect

Computing smart-scope gunsight for US snipers

dux
Grenade

lasers used to determine probability

AC - if the laser is going to detect probability of bullet destination accuracy, and expected condition changes, then it is going to be monitoring regularly, if not continuously.

such a weapon would be fine against a low-tech enemy, but an enemy with resources could easily put together a laser beam detection system to provide sniper warnings. It doesn't have to be visible to be a detection risk.

Silicon Valley plane crash kills 3 Tesla employees

dux
WTF?

wrong plane crash Timmy

Tim - you are confused... this is an article about an accident involving Tesla employees... it has nothing to do with the plane crash in Austin.