So the holiday season is almost over, but by no means winding down, and there have been some interesting goings-on as of late. First off, I already had my first maintanence request in my apartment when Sharon, in an attempt to make the leaky faucet stop leaking, pushed the cold water handle too hard, causing it to leak more…with scolding hot water. I must say that I was not impressed with their promptness, since they weren’t prompt in the slightest. Had I an incident serious enough that flooding started to occur, there would have been a major problem very quickly. But it has been fixed, so my bathroom sink is usable once again.
I have to go out today and face the throngs of people doing last minute holiday shopping since I have some of that to do myself. If I’m arrested on murder and/or assault charges today, you’ll know why.
I’m back on the job hunt, now that I’ve pretty much have my apartment taken care of except for some books, wine, and a couple of evil closet boxes that I refuse to open until I visit Ikea first. But just because I don’t have a job, doesn’t mean I haven’t been coding. If you use Firefox, give it a try. If you don’t use Firefox, I would suggest you download and try it. You’ll like it…
There is also a couple of recent news stories I’d like to comment on. First is an interesting article put out by the AP entitled Poll: Americans Need High-Tech Gadgets, based upon this poll. The article indicates that Americans “are showing early signs of addiction to the next wave of high-tech toys.” That’s a pretty bold statement. First of all, the article makes a misleading statement. They say that “four in 10 spend between $100 and $150 a month, according to the poll of 1,006 adults taken Dec. 13-15.” Well, look at item 6 in the poll. It’s actually about four in ten people who spend between $50 and $150 dollars. But more importantly, item 5 of the poll indicates that people don’t actually think they need a lot of this stuff. Older tech, like CD/DVD players and cell phones people have really integrated into their lives, but these are all evolutions of old stuff, so it hardly a surprise that a more convenient version of something people have been using for decades would become a “necessity” in their lives. But besides that, most people don’t think they need new high-tech gizmos. They need their computers and even high-speed ‘net access, but not the iPods, Xboxes, satellite radios, etc., etc.
Take a poll, misrepresent its findings, get some quotes, stir in hyperbole, chill, and serve.
The second article is an interesting story about new legislation in Congress to get sales tax imposed on the internet. It goes into some discussion of how remotely imposing sales tax is a violation of the interstate commerce clause per Quill v. North Dakota, 504 U.S. 298 (1992), and that a compact between agreeing states approved by Congress, Interstate Simplified Sales and Use Tax Compact (ISSTC), was required for those states to collect taxes on residents on the other agreeing states. Honestly, even if it doesn’t happen with this particular bill, I think Congress will eventually be forced to impose sales tax on the internet (and, by extension, mail order). If e-commerce keeps growing, the states are going to start crying (if they already aren’t) about how their tax revenue is getting eaten up by the intarweb. The author of the article implies that additional property tax (which wouldn’t happen since that’s generally on the county level) or income tax would be a bad thing. Sales taxes are regressive taxes; the income tax structure in this country is progressive. It would be more fair to have an additional state income tax and get rid of sales taxes. One way or another, money spent on the intarweb will be taxed, whether we like it or not.