Posts by WatAWorld
255 posts • joined Friday 24th February 2012 23:04 GMT
In most countries, engaging in fake transactions and self-dealing is not obeying the law.
In most countries, engaging in fake transactions and self-dealing is not obeying the law.
It might not be a criminal offense, but it is violating regulations and a judge could declare the fake construction to be null.
There is no single perfect fix.
If you think the judiciary is corrupt or ignoring the law to favour the local chap, and I agree that happens in the US courts a lot, the solution is fixing the judiciary. You do not fix a broken judiciary by changing patent law.
That's how I see it anyway.
Re: first step
That is true, there needs to be legislation banning patents on trivial ideas, and setting a higher bar for trivial ideas.
Also for copyrights, the limits that allowed the Disney Empire to be built should be put back in place. The Disney Empire got those limits removed after they had their empire and those limits need to be put back.
Copyrights are important because if patents are weakened trolls will start looking to copyrights, like rounded corners.
That is what I like about this law, it does not assume the person using the process to do something is in the right.
And it does not assume that the patent holder is a troll.
It lets the trial take place with almost the current rules, and then the looser pays. That encourages the party that would eventually loose out, the wrong doer, to settle out of court to reduce lawyers fees.
This sounds good
Looser pays, so if a troll looses against a small manufacturer the troll pays both sides.
And if a big manufacturer abuses a small company's patent, the big company will pay.
Good.
Disclosing names and claims up front are good too. Hopefully legislation like this will become standard around the world.
Re: Never say never ..
Ah now it makes sense. Kids tell parents FB is boring so parents do not go on FB.
The kids just want to keep the parents off FB.
How long do other companies keep your data?
Probably a lot longer than 2 weeks.
Someone said they sign up using a fake name (and then they said some dumb stuff).
Actually using a pen name is starting to become popular on FB as is having a second account.
All this doom saying about FB, and how popular Twitter and so on are, then you read down the typical article and it turns out that 90% of people under age 18 use FB and have signed on that week, 20% use Twitter and half have not signed on that month, and the other stuff follows even further behind.
FB is not eternal, nothing is. But FB's demise will not occur in 2013 or 2014.
Re: Basic?
You can edit comments now. Have been able to for maybe a year.
Mouse over to the upper right of your comment and a pull down icon will appear.
Also the privacy options have become a lot better, much more facile and easier to use.
You can block work stuff from family, family stuff from work, school stuff from parents, whatever.
Of course nothing on the web is 100% secure, but that is a property of the web and of computers, not unique to FB.
And the Time of London is going out of business too, because it too is nothing like MS.
Not being like MS predicts nothing.
Re: one in 20 users having clicked on an ad
Are you really an IT professional?
Anything you do online is "one way of getting owned." You can't visit any kind of website without danger.
I dunno, how many times are you interested in the article in The Reg on social media?
I dunno, how many times are you interested in the article in The Reg on social media?
Whatever that number is, the number of times you'd "be interested in something because other people are interested in it" is more than that.
Re: Hotel Facebook
Or use an ad blocking add on to your web browser.
What, you've never heard of the free AdBlock Pro?
I use Firefox an AdBlock Pro is free, I do not see these marketing things you guys apparently are plagued by.
Question: So is each of these robots permanently located in one place, or do they travel around?
Question: So is each of these robots permanently located in one place, or do they travel around?
In the US the congressional hearings will result in campaign contributions
In the US the congressional hearings will result in large campaign contributions to whichever representatives will stonewall improvements to tax laws.
That is what it is about there, grandstanding to the press, and then turning around and taking mega campaign contributions in return for sabotaging any move to fair and patriotic taxation rules that require mega corporations to pay for the services the nation they do business in provides them.
And this is the same Ireland looking for the bail out from other countries
Rather than a bailout Ireland should be looking at ending its tax haven status, for corporations and major artists (say, EU50,000 per year cap on its art creation income exemption).
Re: Rules, laws and more rules.
Apple even avoided taxes in Ireland. They completely avoided taxes in their main subsidiary, the subsidiary they channeled profits into.
Re: "Speaking to the Guardian"
If you care about your country, if you care about business, you will want these corporate leeches which suck the life blood out of our country dealt with.
Advertising money spent outside of the UK should not be tax deductible
Money for advertising to the UK public which is spent outside of the UK should not be tax deductible.
I imagine many major publications are using this dodge, not just Google and Amazon, which is why the press has historically been quiet about it.
Re: Ireland is right, other countries should not allow profits to be exported
"Apple Operations International has not filed a tax return in Ireland, the United States or any other country over the last five years. It had income of $30 billion between 2009 and 2012. By shuttling revenue between international subsidiaries, Apple was able largely to sidestep paying taxes, Congressional investigators said."
the residency loophole Apple and other companies exploit in Ireland
Exerts from NY Times article "Apple’s Web of Tax Shelters Saved It Billions, Panel Finds" published: May 20, 2013
"Atop Apple’s offshore network is a subsidiary named Apple Operations International, which is incorporated in Ireland — where Apple had negotiated a special corporate tax rate of 2 percent or less in recent years — but keeps its bank accounts and records in the United States and holds board meetings in California. "
and
"Because the United States bases residency on where companies are incorporated, while Ireland focuses on where they are managed and controlled, Apple Operations International was able to fall neatly between the cracks of the two countries’ jurisdictions."
From what the NY Times says, the issue is that other countries let companies declare where their head offices are and pay taxes there.
Ireland looks at where the operations take place.
So you have your operations outside of Ireland, so Ireland does not tax you. And you declare Ireland is where the headquarters are so your own country does not tax you.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/business/apple-avoided-billions-in-taxes-congressional-panel-says.html?hp&_r=0&_r=0
Exactly, assume money exported is profit unless proven otherwise
You have nailed it.
Ireland is right, other countries should not allow profits to be exported
Ireland is right, other countries should not allow profits to be exported.
The problem is so many big politically connected companies have been doing it, going under the radar by keeping the scale "small". This taxation loophole has always been a huge advantage for big companies over small and medium sized ones.
And now that Apple, Google, Starbucks and so on are exporting close to 100% of profits the matter has come to public attention and the long deserved taxpayer outrage is finally happening.
These huge companies want the advantages first world governments provide them that allow them to do business, but they do not want to pay their share of what they consume.
Posted in Review: Samsung Galaxy S4
I thought this was a technical magazine.
Bigger screen, higher resolution, faster processor (in North America an even big upgrade from dual core to quad core) and the author says, "you could accuse it of just being the Galaxy S III Mk. II."
Why, because it is still black and has rounded corners?
I thought this was a technical magazine. Appearances don't count. The complete upgrade does.
Re: The fall out of Win 8
You realize if you have a whole bunch of operating system A and one example of operating system B, and a guy who is totally familiar with A, and he's not highly intelligent, he's going to have trouble with B no matter what it is.
Re: Sinowsky hoisted by his own petard?
That is the thing.
The problem is not huge sales of Windows 7, nor huge downloads of Linux, nor even huge sales of Macs.
The problem is lack of PC sales, and those PCs just happen to have Windows 8 on them.
These PCs would not be selling no matter what OS they had on them, overwhelmingly companies and individuals already own perfectly adequate PCs.
People have adequate PCs so they're spending money on stuff they do not yet have adequate versions of (smart phones and tablets).
Re: Instead of
A Mac is too expensive, not powerful enough, insufficiently upgradable, and actually not familiar to us. Plus Mac OS/x is incompatible with the software we want to run.
Re: You would have thought that MS would have learned from the Vista flub...
In general you go to a new version of Windows along with going to a new computer.
Why would anyone update the OS on their computer to a new version when it was already had a good OS?
The only valid reasons to ever install a new version of Windows are:
1. The existing version is lousy (Vista), or
2. You've added new hardware that is incompatible with the existing version.
3. The new version has a new feature that is so attractive you cannot live without it.
Re: It did just work! Not sure why people are complaining so much?
They're complaining because they have not experienced what you experienced.
Looking at recent desktop and laptop sales numbers they have not had your experience because they have not tried due to lack of purchasing even computers for pilot trials. (A polite way saying most of us lack your first hand experience.)
People want to blame Windows 8 for lack of PC sales, but if it was the reason punters would be buying Macs of Linux machines. So it isn't. PC sales are down to the PC market maturing and market saturation setting in.
MS should have made Metro a hidden feature
MS should have made Metro a hidden feature that requires unlocking for one version of Windows.
That does two things:
1. Allows them to see if it is a good idea.
2. Gets hobbyists and professionals interested in making the effort to adopt it.
Still, I think Metro would have been doomed anyways and it is good to see MS waking up to that fact.
As if you would carry out by hand what you could encrypt and transmit so easily
The congressman and FBI were played for fools. As if you would carry out by hand what you could encrypt and transmit so easily.
The fact remains that NASA broke the rules hiring a foreign national from a non-allied nation for a classified project. And it is doing that then data is being stolen.
Israel is certainly not the only country that spies on the USA.
Good headphones cost 50% to 75% more in Canada than the USA
I've been looking for some good headphones, but strangely good headphones cost 50% to 75% more in Canada than the USA.
And online shops that will ship most of their goods to Canada will not ship headphones here.
Posted in Yahoo! Axes! Yet! More! Products!
I think it would be simpler to list what will be left of Yahoo
So what will be left of Yahoo?
It sounds to me as if they're annihilating their existing businesses.
Like Google getting rid of iGoogle, but multiplied by 30.
Why don't they expand into Canada
Why doesn't Amazon expand into Canada?
Few periodicals or freebies available for the Kindle here.
And products other than books or blu-rays on Amazon.ca cost 20 to 75% more than in the USA. And these are products Amazon.com refuses to ship to Canada.
Re: Yea more netbook junk
Sad how many people drink the marketing cool aid.
IBM.
MS.
Apple.
Android.
Whatever flavour of the month they swallow it.
Re: Poor M$
Son, you've obviously never used version .0 of any IBM product.
You've never had a contracting company swap out the experienced guys who learned on your project for inexperienced guys.
You've never had a programmer or project leader pick a programming product on the basis of it looking good on their resume.
Ethics have been in short supply long before Gates came along.
Re: Poor M$
Are they more unethical than the company that sells battery powered devices with irreplaceable batteries?
Are they more unethical than the company that sold off its remaining 486 processors as "pentium upgradable" when the pentium processor that fit in the 486 slot would not be built for 2 years?
Re: Metro
Getting rid of Metro, bringing back the start button, firing Balmer, none of that is going to make our current computers obsolete.
The problem is we have no reason to buy new machines when the old machines are more than adequate.
If Windows 8 were a problem, people would be buying huge amounts of Apple product, or installing Linux. They are not.
It is simple market saturation.
They'll be a bump next year as Windows XP support ends, creating a need to get new machines. But then it is back to market saturation.
I will be hugely surprised if the switch makes any difference
Apple was already making non-Windows foddle slabs and they weren't selling in huge numbers.
The problem is market saturation. People have the computers they want, and they're not going to waste money upgrading for no good reason.
April 2014 will provide a good reason, so a jump in sales when Windows XP support ends.
Smart phones, phablets, there technology is still progressing fairly rapidly, plus they wear out quickly, so they'll continue to sell well. No market saturation for them, yet.
Re: Rejuvinate the PC market - with Linux
Companies are not going to buy computers that require re-training unless there is a really compelling reason, and rejuvenating the PC market is not compelling.
Besides, even if companies started buying new machines with Linux the problems is companies are not buying many new machines.
As well, Windows has been extensively examined by black hat hackers and patched.
You switch to Linux and you have to go through that whole process of getting rid of the bugs and security holes again (sure it is open source and any one can examine it, but there have been cases of holes being there for many years without being noticed).
Finally, if you put Linux on your machines you risk having one of your IT staff launch a major law suit against you because you let him come into contact with Linus Torvalds and Torvalds tore a strip off him (perhaps even in public).
Re: Having no effect on my behaviour
Grammar corrections often turn out to be the logical fallacy known as an "ad hominem attack", attacking the man since the argument is unassailable.
The thing is the article under discussion is about business purchases, not consumer purchases.
For personal electronics (and executives who use company money as if it were their own), buying the new shiny thing is a valid issue.
But we're talking about business trends which means mainstream business purchases.
Re: Congratulations PC makers! @Ledswinger
Why do you need a docking station for your laptops?
Surely your people will get used to the laptop screen and keyboard. At work they can connect to peripherals via the LAN and at home via a USB hub.
@lightknight Re: Congratulations PC makers!
1. This is an article about mainstream business computers and only outside workers are going to be using laptops, in other words a tiny minority.
2. Have you ever looked at how much of your 32 GB of RAM is actually in use? Unless you are editing movies or TV or doing large scale CAD/CAM you are wasting money and driving up power consumption for no reason.
3. $2,000 is more than double what a good price is for a business laptop.
4. Tablet computers are useful for people walking around warehouses I suppose, but not much else in business.
Re: Banks and Media Networks
You're allowed to destroy an enemy economy by the current rules.
it was what area bombing was about in WWII. It is what economic sanctions against Cuba and Iran are intended to do and these sanctions do follow the existing rules.
Re: Err... umm... And who is going to enforce the rules, exactly?
Very good point. For example, who has enforced the existing rules of war on Tony Blair?
So the USA is creating yet another set of rules of war for other countries to obey
NATO, which now means the USA and the foreign mercenaries provided to it for fee by other governments in return for being allowed import and export privileges.
Essentially we again have the USA helping create yet a set of rules of war for other countries to obey, the violation of which it will use as an excuse for invasion, and which it will itself break on the grounds of necessity.
After telling everyone else these acts violate international law and urging sanctions against countries that commit such acts, when finally faced with the situation countries on other continents almost constantly face, the USA says "How can any country protect its citizens if it is unprepared to use torture?", "War necessitates incarcerating child soldiers" and now "How can civilization work if we don't sabotage enemy nuclear power facilities?"
Of the major powers, the USA is nicer and less corrupt than China and Russia, but it is still one of the most hypocritical immoral nations in the world.
These may be good rules, but if citizens of the world's #1 warrior worshiping nation doesn't see them as applying to themselves what is the point in having them?
Won't people to take their moral queues from Kathryn Bigelow ("the Leni Riefenstahl of Hollywood") be persuaded by Hollywood that this, like any other law of war, is made to be broken by any cowardly country that thinks it might suffer some military or civilian casualties if it obeys them?
I haven't had any problem with that
Are you sure it is not something corrupted in your specific installation? Or maybe an incorrect setting?
"No, but I do tell you that small - medium enterprises use the preinstalled OS"
Yes, so they want pre-installed Windows 7, and they want it for the same reasons large companies want it -- uniformity to save on training and documentation costs.
But then the article goes on to claim that businesses large and small taking their time as usual means Windows 8 is a failure, which is absurd. Windows 8 might turn out to be a failure, but we haven't even evaluated it seriously yet.
