MONEY: END THE INCOME TAX heads for the ballot in Taxachusetts! Who would have believed it?

Friday, November 30, 2007

Proud to say, I chipped in a couple of bucks for this effort! If they can do it Taxachusetts, then it can be done anywhere!

*** begin quote ***

From: Small Government News [www.SmallGovernmentNews.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 1:25 AM
Subject: END the Income Tax Initiative Headed For Ballot

Small Government News*
Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Publisher: Carla Howell
Editor: Michael Cloud

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IN THIS ISSUE
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— END the Income Tax Initiative Headed For Ballot
— Boston Globe Article
— “Congratulations,” Writes Citizens for Limited Taxation

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END THE INCOME TAX BALLOT INITIATIVE HEADED FOR BALLOT
===========================================================

Dear Friend,

We’re frazzled, fried, and fatigued.

Last week, we delivered 100,000 petition signatures for our END the Income Tax Ballot Initiative to 351 town clerks for validation and certification.

This week, we have to arrange pickups and shipping of these legally validated signatures to us.

Next week – by Wednesday, December 5th – we must file our validated petition signatures with the Massachusetts Secretary of State.

Then the fun begins. We get to show Massachusetts taxpayers and voters the huge, immediate, direct benefits of ENDing the Income Tax in Massachusetts.

We get to tell them why they can make themselves dramatically better off by ENDing the state income tax – and giving 3,000,000 Massachusetts workers and taxpayers $3,600 each, every year.

{Extraneous Deleted}

*** end quote ***

If they can start the ball rolling repealing the income tax around the country, we’ll have a booming economy and I can afford to quit blogging for fame and fortune. (Huh?)

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Posted by reinkefj

LINKEDIN: What does LinkedIn do with “ghosts”?

Friday, November 30, 2007

FROM AN EMAIL EXCHANGE ABOUT LINKEDIN AND A DEATH

> Re: Interesting what does LinkedIn do … …
>Posted by: “WashingtonDCLobbyist”
>Mon Nov 26, 2007 10:57 am (PST)
>LI has clearly thought this through – and they have a well-used
>policy in place. Sadly, with the numbers were talking about on LI,

Well they clearly have something in place. It just doesn’t meet my needs. Not that it has too. Not that they have ever been overly concerned with my suggestions.

I’d call it the “your call is very important to us (Yeah, right!)” thinking. Like the resume writer who foolishly thinks that the objective section on a resume refers to HIS objective and not that of the reader. Or, the “post office – dmv – take a number move along” service attitude.

Instead of LinkedIn using it as an opportunity to make LinkedIn less like a recruiter’s phone book and more like a true community, they have “a well-used policy in place”.

It’s far too easy to just say that “LI has clearly thought this through”, when fmpov it’s not “thought through” the eyes of this end user.

That’s why I say that LinkedIn is at risk to competition. (If I was the rumored buyer of LinkedIn, I’d take off a few points or a few grazillion bucks because it’s very vulnerable.) And, it’s not MySpace / Facebook / Plaxo / Ryze or such. It’s the new disruptive upstart who figures out that what the Universe needs is a true business social network community site. And, then delivers it flawlessly. :-)

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Posted by reinkefj

TECH SOFTWARE: Copy protection is doomed imho

Friday, November 30, 2007

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20071125/D8T4S5FG0.html

Anti-Copying Programs May Slow Piracy
Nov 25, 1:43 PM (ET)
By BRIAN BERGSTEIN

***Begin Quote***

If the experience of the world’s largest software vendor is any guide, the industry’s best hope for reducing piracy rests with anti-copying technologies rather than in policing the legalistic user agreements that restrict how software can be used.

While a copyright crackdown by the Business Software Alliance and other industry players has been in force for years, piracy rates – as measured by BSA-commissioned studies – have stopped falling. So a few years ago, Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) began concentrating harder on locking software down through a program it calls its Genuine Software Initiative.

The technology has provoked some hostility, because it enables Microsoft to remotely examine user computers. After analyzing such information as the computer’s manufacturer, hard drive serial number and Windows product identification, Microsoft can block access to certain software functions if it suspects the product was illegally copied.

***End Quote***

Well, I would disagree.

MSFT excludes big businesses from their copyright checking. And, as yet, their self-help has NOT been challenged in court. In the marketplace, I’d suggest you see and out and out revolt.

Do you think the non adoption of Vista except on new hardware is surprising. Or the trend of people to retreat to XP on new hardware when faced with one of Vista’s “features”. Of the cutting edge folks moving to Linux or Mac.

No, I think this is gasps and flings of a dying behemoth.

We haven’t even begun to strike the surface of the WebOS and Google Apps.

Look at the new appliance tops that run Linux and cost under 300$!

No, I’d say that MSFT, and it’s buddy INTEL, have finally let the rodents escape the wheel of hardware / software upgrades. Instead of focusing on making the user experience flawlessly transparent, MSFT treats its Customers as criminals.

It, like the RIAA, will find itself voted off the island.

imho

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PRODUCTIVITY: Don’t be too concerned about making “above the waterline” mistakes; can’t die of embarrassment!

Friday, November 30, 2007

FROM AN EMAIL ABOUT A NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING BLOGGER DOING A BLOG IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH

>(hopefully, it’ll help me on the other hand to polish my English based financial vocabulary),

I’m sure your English is far better than my rudimentary Spanish.

Speaking of “polishing”, my best “practicing” story was when the USAF decided it would be simple a wonderful idea if I learned Thai, …

… (This of course overlooks the fact that -at the time- 95% of the Thais spoke fluent English thanks to the British Crown schools. And 85% could write in English better than we could. It was rumored that there were Thai bumpkins out in the countryside who couldn’t speak the Queen’s English. But I never met anyone who did not speak it perfectly. Humorous to see an Oriental face and hear english with just a hint of Brit accent.) …

… and we would go to our Teacher’s restaurant (Thais are stereotypical hard working folks who likely have a full time job, part time job, a business on the side, and gamble / horsetrade / barter in their spare time. You could get tired watching them.) and she would have us entertain the patrons with our language skills.

Imagine two students standing in front of a room full on natives speaking their language in a simulated conversation about something from a lesson book.

The restaurant patrons would laugh, hoot, and howl. The women would cover their eyes (i.e., how Thai women feign embarrassment). It was “soda thru the nose” time! (Most of them didn’t drink. Smoke like chimneys, yes; drink, no?)

When we graduating, the teacher shared with us that our mispronunciations of the tonal Thai language hit most of the bad words, or made absolutely no sense. Who knew that when we were discussing going to “fly our kites” referred to … … and “drinking bootleg gin” referred to … … Well you get the idea.

BTW business at the restaurant went up 50% when she would announce that her students were “coming for dinner”. She got us there to practice our Thai and learn the local culture. We didn’t know we were the stand up comic act. We were just polishing our language skills.

Having made a complete fool out of myself in front of that audience, you’ll hear no laughing from this end of the wire.

Sa Wah Dee there, partner, polish away. BTW, haven’t spoken any Thai since I left the Air Force decades ago. When I do run across a Thai these days, they still speak perfect English and laugh when I greet them in their native tongue. Maybe I’m offering to fly a kite for them? Any way, nobody dies of embarrassment which is all in one’s own mind. People will probably just think it’s new internet lingo. Or, typos.

:-)

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Posted by reinkefj