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Admin
spɹɐʍʞɔɐq ʇı ʇoƃ ǝuoǝɯos
Admin
Ugh, now there's something I don't want to think about too much.
We're in the process of transferring one of our product suites to Apache (<blakeybait>it always was open source software</blakeybait> but we've grown tired of going it alone and want to transfer it for political reasons). As part of this, Apache requires that we do a transfer of copyright. Quite reasonable. We've got the agreement to do this. (The politics is quite persuasive.) Moreover, for everything that we're sending, we own the copyright, as we've been insistent on getting external contributors to assign copyright to us in the past. (The stuff that remains that has a confused copyright is not going at all; we're not stupid, and anyway that old stuff is virtually all shit by modern programming standards. Best practice changes over time.)
But we've got to get our Legal to sign off on this. They were told about this in mid-October. Last week, we asked WTF was going on, where was that signature. Their response was approximately “well, I suppose we could expedite writing a draft of a courtesy letter to send to all the funding agencies that funded the work by these external people to see if they're really really OK with us doing this, and I can let you have the draft of that letter to look over in a few weeks.”
The :wtf: emoji does not really summarise our response to this, though it is perhaps closest of the ones available. Most of my colleagues are pretty mild-mannered, but this just got several of them to utter the first Belgium words I've ever heard them utter.
We're not happy. But at least we're not paying Legal by the hour. If we were, we'd be breaking out the steel-tipped whip by now…
Admin
If @Eldelshell were an American a whoosh would definitely be in order.
Admin
My guess is some kind of government requirement, like, if the prize's value is over a certain amount, they have to report it so you can pay tax. (Tom's Hardware has contests where they won't let people from Rhode Island (I think) enter because of some weird state law that causes more of a burden then they want to deal with.)
Also, as far as faxing, last I looked, you could still go to some kinds of stores that would fax for you for a fee.
Admin
You could say the same for many millennials.
PS: thank $deity that 80s metal shit was over by the time I was a teen.
Admin
Probably. But I'd expect them to be more likely to be familiar with it than someone on a different continent with a different first language (IIRC?).
Oh, hey, I just looked at your user card for the first time and saw your old-forum id. Hiya.
Admin
They were big in Europe too; no need to hold back on the whooshes for that reason. It's more likely a generation thing, but I don't know how to turn that into a sufficiently convoluted movie title about religion and stuff, so I cannot post it in the right thread.
Admin
This is back in the days when you had to print out a paper copy and feed it into the machine. So yes.
Admin
This company supplied property developers. When I did my management course one of the things we looked at was property developers. They are the most under-capitalised businesses you could imagine, and work often stops because they run out of money. The Venn diagram of property developers and Mob has a certain overlap. And once the goods are part of the fabric of a building it is too late to get them back. So, you collect payment ideally before they have been used. It is not like a washing machine or an oven.
When I worked in the plumbing trade, terms were 2% discount for under 14 days, and most people paid in that time. Of course, the potential sanctions for nonpayment are more severe than for someone supplying underground pipes; the bailiffs going in and cutting all of the shower controls out of a condo, for instance.
Class D. Many large companies do not understand the concept of COD. CWO, CIA may be possible and I have had at least one irrevocable letter of credit (from a company in Arizona we had never heard of before and which had no credit score). But anything that involves actual bean counters having to go down to Goods Inwards with an actual check...come on now!Admin
I happily accept the title of Code Monkey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s8S7QxpjeY
Admin
Just a fair point to bring up, the IRS is actually a private company. The most powerful private company that is.
Admin
Oh boy. Get your tinfoil hats boys. Watch much Alex Jones? Are the Bilderbergs behind it?
Admin
This I gotta hear.
Admin
Just look up "Prison Planet" on YouTube. It will be something from there.
Admin
OMG do you think they have gold fringe on the flag? THAT MEANS IT'S A ADMIRALTY COURT!
Admin
Looks like a client trying to pull something.
We've got a client who keeps wielding the stick of 1d4 Willful Ignorance. My colleague is getting hammer-fatigue from hitting him with the clue bat.
Admin
I think I scared him off before he could even tell us that we are just sheeple and he is one of the few enlightened ones. Damn me and my hair trigger. This could have been a good one.
Admin
Why are you calling yourself Esquire and using a title of English nobility? Do you not see from my three-cornered hat and hose I am very serious?
Admin
Maybe it'd be the one about how JANE BAILEY isn't the same entity as Jane Bailey and therefore taxes are being levied against the wrong individuals... or the one about how there's no law on the books allowing the government to actually levy taxes, therefore, taxation is illegal....
Admin
Actually -- I'm more concerned about things like NetJets v. United States -- why, oh why, did the Treasury and the FAA never talk to each other when it came to taxing aviation? :facepalm:
Oh, wait, it's the gubmint -- time to lower my expectations...
Filed under: George the Dragon for FAA Administrator!
Admin
Bah, I'm way more interested in crackpot theories than real problems XD
Admin
I'm partial to "what is the OMB Form number for IRS Form 1040?"
Admin
1545-0074 -- it's right at the top of the first page!
At least the IRS has enough brains to comply with the Paperwork Reduction Act, unlike the USPTO, which has been quite obstinate about discharging its responsibilities as a well-behaved Federal agency...
Fun exercise: time yourself at completing a 1040 and see how you compare to the published regulatory burden estimates. ;)
Admin
long form or short form?
Admin
Oh, I guess the place I read that one must have been old or something.
Admin
My taxes have never been so complex it's taken more than, say, an hour to calculate, even by hand.
Admin
Or the medium one?
Admin
not familliar with that one.
there's the 1040, anf the 1040 witl all those other supplimentary forms you sometimes need....
i mena if you are lucky you cna do the 1040EZ but that's not the same form.
Admin
A form others can read. Pen, not pencil.
Admin
1040EZ, 1040A, 1040. The A is a longer form of the EZ. You can use it if you've got (say) kids, so can't use the EZ any longer, but don't need to itemize or do other things that would force you to use the full version.
Admin
Edit: according to this, about 29% of filers use the 1040A. (13% EZ, and 59% full 1040.)
Admin
Round here, they changed the rules this year. In the past, you'd have to submit your tax forms before 31 March trailing midnight. If you filled it in after 1 March, it would automatically fill in most details, and you'd only have to double check. This year, you cannot submit your form before 1 March, and you have until 30 April. It's always pre-filled.
That's digitally, of course. If you really really want to you can still do it on paper but it's strongly discouraged. There might be business or special-case forms that are paper only but I kind of doubt it.
The most WTFy part, and even that not very, is how you're supposed to sign it - username/password and optional verification via SMS. There is physical paperwork involved in obtaining those.
Admin
Asterix called, you're supposed to go to the third window on the second floor for Permit A38.
Admin
I was extremely confused by this for a moment.
Sigh... I need a vacation.
Admin
I think I've read all of those albums, but I don't think that one was relevant for taxes?
Admin
It's one of the Twelve Tasks of Asterix, where he has to go to the Place That Sends You Mad to obtain a form, and is directed back and forth around the place until he outsmarts them. Sounds like the form business here, really.
Admin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI5kwSap9Ug?t=1m50s
Admin
One of my favourite childhood movies. After Cleopatra of course.
Admin
Pay for their UAT testing and bill it back to them with a mark-up.
Admin
*twitch*
Admin
You wanna get that twitch looked at at the ER room?
Admin
Admin
On the contrary, I thought it was funny, so you may not be amused, but we are.
Admin
Will I need a personal PIN number to enter?
Admin
The one that annoys me the most (that I never heard used in English, mind you, it's the people around me IRL), is LED diode.
Admin
That...is the worst thing ever. You should yell at people for that. People who say "ATM machine" would groan at that.
Admin
Windows 2000, the splash screen used to say "based on new NT technology"
Admin
I have heard someone say, "light-emitting LED diode". It was hard to not waterboard them.
Addendum: When I pointed out that they had actually said, their response was, "Well, the IR versions don't emit light. I mean the ones that do." :headdesk:
Admin
Infra IR?
Admin
If they had said that for the second part, I would have waterboarded them.