OT: Taxing shituation

Yep. They're Telex headsets.

Well, there is the football sidelines headset maker that also does pro-audio stuff, ;-)

Not surprising at all. Kinda defeats the purpose, though.

Isn't that mainly high school football though? :-)

From what I've seen the college schools often use Telex as well; seems like they'd be a prime market for something like those fancy Clear-Com Tempest units.

Yeah, they apparently figure that, even if you they don't regularly change the encryption codes, it's still a proprietary system that very few people would have the technical knowledge/ability/equipment to eavesdrop on... and if your goal is to try to find out what the opposing team is up to, it may well be easier anyway to try, e.g., laser bounce off their windows or parabolic microphones or similar. :-)

Hmm... did you do much with the implementation of that encryption stuff to "rent a core" at IBM? If so you'd probably be in a good position to evaluate the robustness of the encryption used in the more contemporary offerings.

I've probably mentioned before that we have an employee here who used to work at a place making encrypted telephone systems. He had the "honor" of being told by the NSA that a particular encryption algorithm he had personally cooked up needed to be dumbed down a bit, please... at least if the company ever felt it'd like to legally sell the product. :-)

---Joel

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Well, considering the public school budget is about half the entire state budget and the cost of private schools is about half that, maybe it's a good time to cut the public school budget in half and send the kids to private schools. In California, the deficit is about 20B while the budget is 80B. So, if we cut the 40B for schools in half by sending the kids to private school, we save 20B which just about balances the books. What do you think of that idea?

-Bill

.Well, considering the public school budget is about half the entire .state budget and the cost of private schools is about half that, maybe .it's a good time to cut the public school budget in half and send the .kids to private schools. In California, the deficit is about 20B while .the budget is 80B. So, if we cut the 40B for schools in half by .sending the kids to private school, we save 20B which just about .balances the books. What do you think of that idea?

.-Bill

Great idea. Here's another. Do away with the US Department of Education. It has never educated anyone.

Think of the savings.

tm

Nope. 100% of D-1A schools.

Look again. That's what 100% of them are using (there is some older Telex stuff still in use, but it's going away fast), though the gear is different and doesn't have the ClearCom name on it. The black sidelines trunk with the blue swooshed (also on the ClearCom Tempest boxes) is a hint.

The "rent-a-MIP" stuff came just after I left the crypto group. I jumped ship to BTV just after the great purge of '93. My former boss wanted me to do some crypto work there (though it never panned out). Later they wanted me to move back for the CMOS processor crypto work (actually an add-in card version) but there was no way I was going back to Poughkeepsie. It's a real hole.

Probably foreign sales. There is no law against selling any crypto domestically. The spooks are dumb enough to believe that no one else is smart enough to do strong crypto. That's been getting better, though. I remember some crap to intentionally rad-*UN*-harden CMOS processors so they couldn't be used in aerospace applications. Fortunately, we were able to take that junk out because Nintendo promised to not became a nuclear power. ;-)

We (my wife and I) watch the Oregon State Beavers and I sure thought Mike Riley was sporting a Telex box on his hip this past Saturday, as Boise pretty easily killed them. I'll take another look this coming Saturday...

Hmm... now that the FCC has decided what it wants to do with white space, I suppose that units that work at 2.4GHz will start prominently advertising that they're not going to be negatively affected by it... unlike many wireless microphone and older headset systems. I'm not sure it'll really increase sales much in the high-end sector that, e.g., ClearCom operates in, but I suspect that companies like Sennheiser are going to make out quite well in the next few years here.

I expect you're correct; I'll have to ask him for the details again.

Foreign trade is often better than any treaty when it comes to keeping the peace!

---Joel

Look at the sidelines box.

You're way late. ;-)

Ask China about that.

Social entitlements plus interest on the debt consume the entire federal revenue; we're borrowing the money for roads, defense, and everything else.

FEDERAL SPENDING, FY 2009 $659B Social Security $679B Medicare + Medicaid $570B Welfare (approximate, inferred from other sources, possibly slightly overstated) $199B Interest on the debt ---------- $2,107 billion

$636B Defense $154B TARP $120B Unemployment benefits $ 91B Bailouts to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae $405B other ------------ $3,513 billion Total spending.

FEDERAL REVENUE, FY 2009 $916B Individual income tax $891B Social insurance taxes $139B Corporate income taxes $160B Excise, customs, duties, gift, estate, and other taxes ---------- $2,106 billion Total revenue

-- Cheers, James Arthur

Speaking of cutting the bureaucracy, get rid of the DEA and call off the insane war on drugs. It costs a fortune, gets innocent people killed, overloads the prisons with people who have done no harm, and accomplishes nothing more than jacking up the profits of the cartels/gangs.

Cheers! Rich

User fees - or better yet, charge the COMPETITIVE going rate for the desired service.

Like any business, charge a reasonable rate for the service in question. Oh? Semi-unused services like police (Pinkertons etc could expand to fill)? Like fire departments (volunteer departments in a lot of places are MORE responsive and MOER professional already, and insurance companies could help fund those along with donations by grateful users)? Pick pockets? Government is too inefficient, the local guys are better.. Wars? Start your own with your money and nobody else's, buster!

Absolutely! But without the government's stupid systems, that would not easily happen or as badly.

Young kid! 72+ here..

The only way that someone like me, with very little funds could "un-entitle" (ie not get SocSec) would be is to die (of starvation).

Well.....who pays for those private schools?

Fully agree. If someone wishes to f*ck up their life, have at it.

tm

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One notion is vouchers--the taxpayers could fund them, instead of paying double for current schools. Parents would get to use vouchers and bring their business to the school of their choosing, thereby forcing schools to "up their game." Meanwhile, taxpayers would save half.

The NEA and Teachers' Unions hate the idea, naturally.

-- Cheers, James Arthur

Grandfathers would have to be, um, grandfathered, clearly. :-)

Rep. Paul Ryan is proposing that, with younger people being promised less, and simultaneously being permitted to save more for themselves on their own.

The so called =93war on drugs=94 is a scam. No clear objective other than to keep local, state and federal employees working. Another example of an entitlement program.

There=92s clearly enough laws on the books to apprehend folks when their behavior is irresponsible as a result of being under the influence.

It=92s just insane to believe that the government will ever be successful at weaning people from their vices. The government has a golden opportunity add a taxable resource. I don=92t smoke, but I=92ve been told that cigarettes in some states are as high as 5 bucks a pack =85 vice tax?

Hold them accountable and responsible for their behavior and start executing after a given number of fumbles =85 doesn=92t matter if it=92s a "dui" due to alcohol, marijuana, chocolate chips or peanuts. Kill a couple of birds with one stone ...

Now you=92re talking Rich