Dan Danner: ObamaCare vs. Small Business - WSJ.com

Dan Danner: ObamaCare vs. Small Business - WSJ.com

Supporters say the law will significantly help small businesses, focusing on the much-talked about small business tax credit. But the reality is that the tax credit is complex and very limited because firms qualify based on number of employees and average wages. The credit, which is only available for a maximum of six years, puts small business owners through a series of complicated "tests" to determine if they qualify and how much they will receive. Fewer than one-third of small businesses even pass the first three (of four) tests to qualify: have 25 employees or less, provide health insurance, and pay 50% of the cost of that insurance. More importantly, the credit is temporary, but health-care cost increases are permanent. When the credit ends, small businesses will be left paying full price. They'll also be forced to deal with all sorts of new taxes, fees and mandates buried in this 2,000-page law. One of these new taxes is a so-called health insurance fee. It's a massive $8 billion tax (that escalates to $14.3 billion by 2018) on insurance companies based on their market share. This tax will be paid almost exclusively by small businesses and individuals because the law specifically excludes self-insured plans, the plans that most big businesses and labor unions offer, from having to pay the tax.

Lessons From a Torpedo - WSJ.com

"South Korea formally announced Thursday that one of its warships was sunk, and 46 of its sailors murdered, by a North Korean torpedo on March 26. The news itself comes as no surprise. What would be a surprise—a welcome one—is if the U.S. and its allies drew the appropriate conclusions about how to deal with Pyongyang going forward."

John Fund: Tea Parties vs. Unions in November - WSJ.com

John Fund: Tea Parties vs. Unions in November - WSJ.com

In contrast to the tea party, there has been far too little scrutiny of the SEIU, whose membership of government and health-care workers is the fastest-growing of any union in the country. Andy Stern, the just retired head of the SEIU, was found to be the most frequent guest at the Obama White House last year, stopping by 22 times between January and September, more than all congressional leaders and cabinet members. The SEIU's close ties to the discredited group Acorn have largely been ignored. The same is true for the violence perpetrated by some of its members.

Rumor: Microsoft set for vast data-center push

"I've also heard that people may be 'stunned' about the extent to which Microsoft will embrace open-source software and interoperability in its plan. We shall see."

The only thing that will "stun" people is if they populate these data centers with Linux servers.

I don't think it beyond the realm of possibility either. Consider the alternative. Last time I worked with Microsoft servers it was still a royal pain in the backside to configure them remotely. Microsoft was just getting around to vending a tool (name of which I've forgotten) to allow for such things, but it worked poorly. No doubt it has improved, but my guess is that it takes more flunkies per gigahertz to run a Windows server farm than any other variety, and that doesn't count all the flunkies that have to go around repairing and re-installing software on end-user's desks. All well and good when it is an invisibly small part of your product line. But imagine all the companies that will line up to get rid of their own computer rooms and have Microsoft provide that service to them. These companies, some of which may remember that they actually spent less when they were dependent on the big bad mainframe, won't mind paying a premium to get themselves out of the computer maintenance business again.

Timesharing2.0 here we come!

But when it gets rolling, it will no longer matter to Microsoft that they set an example, "eating their own dog food" so to speak with Windows server, which has eaten (no pun intended) about as far into the Unix and Mainframe server markets as it is going to. Microsoft is going to be focused on saving Kilowatts, efficient and transparent virtualization, and most of all, centers that can run with almost no personnel on hand, be administered from Redmond, or India, or anywhere, including a web page at the customer site. They may, in the long run, even see some advantages in vending cheap thin clients to their customers, because, after all, they will be responsible for keeping these machines up to date and virus free and we all know that's almost impossible with Windows. Deals they have with Novell and Citrix may well grease the skids for this thing being an almost totally transparent switch from the hokey mostly client paradigm we suffer under now to something that resembles the true client/server model we talked about in the 90s.

I promise not to be stunned.

WSJ.com - The Real Gas Gougers

"Mark this 'gouging' law down as the first step back toward the oil and gas price controls of the 1970s. We know that chapter of history ended poorly for American consumers -- with supply disruptions, gas lines, and increased dependence on foreign oil. Under Congress's new brainchild, the next time there is a gasoline supply disruption, service station owners may well hold prices artificially low to avoid jail sentences. As night follows day, that will lead to shortages, lines and stranded motorists. So if Congress thinks that voters are in a foul mood now, wait until their price-control scheme offers them no gas at 'non-gouging' prices." test

Cafe Sole - Where It's Always a Sunny Day!

Computer Security, Encryption, Legal Help - Axsmith.net

Former co-worker doing well.

Business Opportunities Weblog | How Much Is My Blog Worth

My blog is worth $1,129.08.
How much is your blog worth?

Well, I guess this has to do with it being my first Blogspot thingy, even though I'm not using it so much these days. I wonder what my home based blog would be worth? Might be hard to measure as I've taken it down. All, moot of course as nobody would actually PAY anything for them.

WEES Radio 107.9 FM

WEES Radio 107.9 FM

Dan's 20th Century Abandonware - Home Page

Heh.

TEXTKIT - Greek and Latin Learning Tools

Ooooo, neato.

Debcon 5 Videos

Comparing BibleTranslations: Textual Criticism and Interpretation

Los Lunas: Small Town Lifestyle, Big City Convenience

Map 1

Map 2 Map 3

VDH's Private Papers::The Forbidden History: "One has only to read the historical record, read the words of the Koran and the hadiths (sayings attributed to the Prophet), and read the centuries of interpretations in Muslim theology and jurisprudence, to know that today?s jihadists have not ?highjacked? or ?distorted? Islam but are simply traditionalists, squarely in line with Islam?s historical identity."

My Big Fat American Summer

The Myths of Open Source - Open Source - CIO Magazine Mar 1,2004 (oldie, but goodie)

1999 Budgeting for flood control: "Lake Pontchartrain and vicinity (hurricane protection), Louisiana- The Committee recommendation concurs with the House allowance of $11,848,000 for the Lake Pontchartrain and vicinity (hurricane protection), Louisiana project. In addition, in light of recent devastating flooding, the Corps is directed to evaluate the feasibility of expediting the remaining features of the project in the vicinity of St. Charles Parish, and to provide the Committee with an accelerated construction schedule and funding profile through project completion, along with the feasibility and impacts of incorporating four additional pumping stations, and other needed structures, in the New Orleans west unit, St. Charles Parish levee part of the project. Lake Pontchartrain storm water discharge, Louisiana- The Committee has included $850,000 to continue the development of this project. Further, the facility owners shall receive credit for design and construction, compatible with project requirements, accomplished by the facility owner prior to execution of the necessary agreements with the non-Federal sponsor. Ouachita River levees, Louisiana- The Committee recommends an appropriation of $2,300,000 for the Corps of Engineers to complete the rehabilitation or replacement of deteriorated drainage structures in the Ouachita River levee system in Louisiana."

Example of MSN Spaces Sucking: "Server Application Unavailable The web application you are attempting to access on this web server is currently unavailable. Please hit the 'Refresh' button in your web browser to retry your request. Administrator Note: An error message detailing the cause of this specific request failure can be found in the application event log of the web server. Please review this log entry to discover what caused this error to occur."

WSJ.com - Case of the Vanishing X-rays: "When Judge Jack brought this troubling fact up again in last week's hearing, Mr. Laminack shocked everyone by explaining that he doubts his clients ever had asbestosis. Put another way, so eager was Mr. Laminack to support the credibility of his silicosis claims that he admitted in federal court that he believed his clients had previously filed fraudulent asbestos claims. His admission is all the more notable because Mr. Laminack was indicting some of the lions of the asbestos bar -- Dickie Scruggs, for instance -- who (according to defense attorneys) were among those filing 'Alexander' asbestos claims."