Discussions

5 minutes ago, Bass wrote

The whole idea of a "corporate income tax" is silly to begin with. Corporations should pay taxes on real assets (real estate, etc.) but the idea of income only really makes sense for natural persons.

I actually agree with this, but I think most people feel that "big evil corporations" need to "pay their fair share" which means if they make more than 1% profit they aren't being taxed enough

1 hour ago, davewill wrote

@Kental2: Atlanta traffic ROCKS! You don't need caffeine in the morning when you have formula one racing six lanes wide and no granny lane.

I actually DO prefer Atlanta traffic to many other places I've lived (Washington DC, Los Angeles), but compared to waking up, stretching, putting on a robe and going downstairs to start work... yeah  I can live without the morning "steering-wheel death grip."

At any rate, slightly more on topic, and in case it wasn't obvious, I'd be in favor of an automated vehicle ride, if for no other reason than the number of accidents mightly slowly decrease over time, and we can actually use our highways as they were intended, rather than having a 6 line highway brought to a halt by an accident in a single line.

Having said that, I think I'm a little too paranoid about letting my car drive itself.  Not for any "Minority Report" big brother reasons, but simply because all it takes is one screw-up and that's the ball game.  While I understand computers can react faster than any human, it's not the reflex I question.  It's the programming  

@kettch: Believe me, I'm with you.  I actually work from home, though not as an independent contractor.  I can barely imagine having to brave the traffic around my area (Atlanta, GA) let alone having to drive an extra hour beyond that.  I think I'd go mad.

14 minutes ago, kettch wrote

@ScanIAm: Although, if you account for that fact that many of us spend the first half hour at work going through email, voicemail and other meta-work, then you could conceivably shift that to your drive-time and sleep in another half hour.

Not to mention some people with 1-2 hour long commutes.  If they could have internet access during the ride, conceivably a company might consider the commute part of their work day so they can work their 9-5 like the rest of humanity instead of doing a weird 7-7 thing  Obviously for some career fields that just wouldn't work, but then I don't think many people would commute an hour and a half as a telemarketer or something like that.

Telecommuting is finally starting to take hold in the US from what I can see, so maybe other hybrid workdays might gain some traction (such as an hour or two in your car and the rest in the office or something).

That certainly jives with personal experience - I'm hard-pressed to find a single person I know who doesn't have multiple PC's in their home (sometimes it's one for them and their spouse, sometimes  it's one for them and one for the family, etc.).  Although funnily enough I don't know many people who own Tablets; they just can't justify the cost, although they like to fiddle with them (who doesn't?).  Guess I'm not a good example of the trend

@figuerres: I agree with that sentiment.  I was only stating my personal experience, just like DBVS stated his.  They differ.  That's perfectly fine.  I just don't like all the vitriol pointed at the new feature as if it's a downgrade when I don't know a single person that likes the old experience more. They are definitely out there, and kudos to them, but they shouldn't make it sound like windows is a disaster because they have the only valid opinion

With more and more 64-bit apps being required and more resource requirements, isn't it going to render it all a bit of a moot point soon anyway (if it hasn't already)?  My understanding is that 64-bit XP is rubbish, but I admit I haven't used it myself.  Heck, my current machine has 32GB of RAM - not even because I use all of it, but because it was only like $200 more than one with 12-16 GB of RAM.  Why not?

@vesuvius: I have to take issue with the fanbois statement from above; I've slowly started switching family members onto Windows 8 with absolutely no input from me after installation, and everyone from my great aunt to my grandma to my mother, who can barely open her email without managing to crash her desktop, has had positive things to say.  And the number one thing they like best is the "start screen".   Number two is the fast bootup times

I think most of us here being overly experienced windows users cuts us out of the mainstream in two ways: Firstly, we're more technically savvy and therefore we can roll with changes easier than others.  That's frequently been touted as the reason we're all not really qualified to comment on Win 8, since we're not "normal users."  The second reason, however, is that we're so used to how windows works that we are VERY resistant to change (it seems to me).  So the very same reason we may feel we're having less trouble adapting to Win8 is the same reason we're resisting the change more than most, because it's "different."

I realize that as a statistical result set my opinion represents practically nothing, but considering all of my most computer illiterate family members picked up Win8 and loved it within an hour, I'm a believer.  My opinion almost doesn't matter, because I'm not the "average" user - they are.  And they've definitely spoken

I seem to recall reading W3bbo left because he was seeking employment with Microsoft and thought his posts here would hinder him in that effort.  Or something.

I've often thought about that, Kettch. A lot of times people think management experience means a person will be a competent manager for ANY profession, but I don't think software developers (and software development in general) works the same way.  Not only will incompetence be brutal in software development, developers will probably be far less satisfied having to deal with an incompetent boss or one that doesn't understand what software development entails.

From my personal experience/history, this is usually expressed by an incompetent manager asking why a feature can't be done in 2 hours instead of 2 weeks, because they have no fundamental understanding of what it takes to do the job.