Recently in Taxes Category

Wired News has picked up on the massive "user revolt" over Flickr's new video features.

The big issue is the way it was implemented," said Jason Bouwmeester, a systems analyst in Canada and one of the group administrators for No Video on Flickr. "There was no public beta.... They just reset everyone's settings."

Quite rightly, Underwired (that's Wired's oh-so-clever Blog name) points out that the new feature takes away from Flickr's purpose - photography.

"I had hoped my [Pro membership fee] would go to fixing issues with the site, not to starting a video application," said Bouwmeester. "I can't see them reverting [the video service] altogether, but they should have some way for users to ignore it."

I hope people complain as loud when their taxes get raised and their roads don't get fixed. Yahoo should take a lesson from good business and good government, and give the Flickr "taxpayers" a ROI instead of stuff they don't need.

...not really, but the headline pulled you in, didn't it?

 

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet (Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), Chairman) does however, have a hearing scheduled for next Tuesday, April 1 (I am not making this up) entitled "Online Virtual Worlds:  Applications and Avatars in a User-Generated Medium".

We're still waiting on that report from Dan Miller, Senior Economist for the Joint Economic Committee's Republican Staff (and avid gamer) on taxation of virtual worlds. Miller has previously said that existing tax code could in theory enable the IRS to levy taxes on virtual earnings, although an October 2006 press release from the JEC says that this is extremely unlikely.

The hearing is scheduled to be in 2123 Rayburn HOB, which means it will be webcast (and possibly live-blogged). No word yet on whether or not simultaneous hearings will take place in other realms, or if the witness list includes avatars, bots, or unicorns.

 

I'm watching a live feed of the House of Representatives, where they are debating an Energy bil which would increase taxes on oil companies and subsidize clean and renewable energy.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) is offering a motion to recommit which would insert the "Protect America Act" (aka the Spy on America and Grant Retroactive Immunity to the Telecoms Act).

With his typical charm and wit, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-MI) raised a point of order against Hoekstra's motion. Point of order sustained. Hoekstra appeals. The House is now voting on the motion to table the appeal of the ruling of the Chair (today it's Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL)).

While I don't have much time to write at the moment, I'll point out two things:

• Big Telecom wants this immunity because they've been investing billions into systems to divert and copy fiber optic traffic for the purposes of data mining and spying at various peering points. They also stand to risk billions in judgements and legal fees (and jail time for executives?) if they're not granted immunity, because they've been complicit in a conspiracy to illegally wiretap the entire country.

 

• While renewable energy may not be great for Detroit, the technological investment and R&D for developing truly renewable fuel and energy sources would help the economy. There would be jobs for smart people to think about these things and develop solutions, as well as jobs for the labor needed to implement stuff.

 

• Here's a question: wouldn't Google have an interest in developing energy sources to power their massive data centers? Who do they buy their power from? More importantly, how much does fuel for their backup generators cost? Hey, Larry and Sergey! It doesn't matter if you own your own seperate backbone if there isn't any juice to run your data centers. If you want to be self-sufficient, be self-sufficient. Or, you could always invade a country.

So, the House just passed a massive, incredible economic "stimulus package" that amounts to handing out free money to people in return for them continuing to breathe. Sounds fair, right? Oh, I forgot. Congress hasn't actually passed a real budget in three years, we're already running a deficit because most Iraq war funding comes in "Emergency" supplemental Appropriations bills debated under special rules, and to top it off borrowing most of the money to fund the from China. Anyone remember the Family Guy where Peter is told by a loanshark:

The difference between us and other banks, Mr. Griffin, is that we're not a real bank!

Now, imagine Yao Ming holding Henry Paulson upside down by his ankles and shaking the change out of his pockets. Seriously. The Chinese hold so much American debt they have to be happier than a bookmaker on Super Bowl Sunday, or something like that. Does anyone else wonder when we're gonna get our collective legs broke? We might be getting nice fresh $600 checks from our senile Uncle Sam this spring, which I assume is a seperate process from this, but remember where it really comes from. Maybe I should learn to speak Mandarin.