Humor Random Comments Thread

[Andy44]

better go for that - (the bot) - even with a German sense of humour, wouldn't look for lottery result on here :rofl:

There was an episode of South Park where German engineers built a comedy robot called Funnybot which, of course, didn't quite work out as planned...

 

[Urwumpe]

How you do it sooo wrong:

2:0 for VfL Wolfsburg against Real Madrid. Yes, you read that correctly. Next week will be an epic match in Madrid, we expect a berserking Real.

 

[jedidia]

So apparently the UEFA are now blocking outtakes from sports footage... This is getting ridiculous! :facepalm:

 

[Urwumpe]

So apparently the UEFA are now blocking outtakes from sports footage... This is getting ridiculous! :facepalm:

Yes, that is modern copyright law... which is nonsensical in that field. They even banned videos of amateur games here. All rights had been reserved to the football association, which tried to sell the videos of such amateur games for a serious amount of money to local newspapers.

But the BGH (Highest German civil law court) stopped this practise here and established a fair use ruling for such games, saying that the copyright owners have to tolerate short video clips of the games, because the players are amateurs and there is no professional business case that requires protection:

http://juris.bundesgerichtshof.de/c...t=bgh&Art=en&Datum=Aktuell&nr=53789&linked=pm

Sadly this ruling does not apply to professional football teams (Which have a business there) and less so for the UEFA and european law.

 

[Evil_Onyx]

Related kind of.

Geo-Blocking Madness Highlighted By Hidden Camera Stunt - TorrentFreak

Millions of consumers of digital content are regularly informed that since they live in a certain region the content they're trying to access is off-limits. Known as 'geo-blocking', the practice is being blamed for encouraging piracy through to anti-competitive business practices in the EU. A new hidden camera video highlights just how ridiculous geo-blocking would feel in the physical world.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

So apparently the UEFA are now blocking outtakes from sports footage... This is getting ridiculous! :facepalm:

I believe this is done in the spirit of Rule 3 of Brockian Ultra-Cricket:

Rule Three:
Put your team and the opposing team in a large field and build a high wall round them.
The reason for this is that, though the game is a major spectator sport, the frustration experienced by the audience at not actually being able to see what’s going on leads them to imagine that it’s a lot more exciting than it actually is. A crowd that has just watched a rather humdrum game experiences far less life-affirmation than a crowd that believes it has just missed the most dramatic event in sporting history.

 

[jedidia]

A new hidden camera video highlights just how ridiculous geo-blocking would feel in the physical world.

Actually that's not how it works. "Geo-blocking" is very much a concept from the physical world that is just very ill suited to the internet.

In explicit, it's basically necessary because just because you have the right to do business in e.g. the UK doesn't automatically mean that you have the right to do business in e.g. Switzerland. You want to do busines in Switzerland, you either find a swiss partner, or you open a branch here. A branch that pays taxes and import tariffs on foreign goods you might want to sell here.

If you can just serve swiss customers over the website without any of that, you get an "unfair market advantage" (not to mention all your sales in Switzerland get taxed solely by the UK). For example, you could not sell CDs in Switzerland without a distributor or a branch here, so you're not allowed to sell MP3s to customers inside Switzerland either (the nationality doesn't matter. All that matters is location).

I can at least understand the concept here, although I think it would be time for people to stick their heads together and come up with something reflecting the digital reality better.

I am very much aboard with the concept of regional pricing, however, although I think that the benefits for countries with low GDP should be a lot more signifficant.

 

[Andy44]

It never occurred to me that there is daylight savings time in Australia. But Natalie will explain it to me:

---------- Post added at 11:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:51 PM ----------

Procrastination complete. I finally filed my 2015 taxes, so I can quit worrying about it for another year. I heard that in Sweden filing taxes is done on your cell phone and takes like 15 seconds. I can't imagine the US IRS ever letting things get that simple.

 

[Urwumpe]

Procrastination complete. I finally filed my 2015 taxes, so I can quit worrying about it for another year. I heard that in Sweden filing taxes is done on your cell phone and takes like 15 seconds. I can't imagine the US IRS ever letting things get that simple.

Don't mention the war. :facepalm: You have never filed taxes in Germany, have you?

 

[jedidia]

Pfff... try Switzerland. Any country with direct taxation has comparatively simple tax forms.
Thanks God the wife does our taxes :lol:

 

[Urwumpe]

Pfff... try Switzerland. Any country with direct taxation has comparatively simple tax forms.
Thanks God the wife does our taxes :lol:

Our tax laws have only 69,000 articles. Good luck. :lol:

 

[dehat42]

Our tax laws have only 69,000 articles. Good luck. :lol:

I used to do taxes as a second job here in the US during "tax season" (January 15-April 15). My last tax return I ever did for the company must have had half of the 69,000 articles applied to it...part of it had to be done in the back because the computers up front didn't have the parts of the form that applied to the customer.

I have never been audited, and I hear it can be brutal.

 

[TMac3000]

Single mother of three walks into tax office:
W-2 shows 6000 of income;
Gets refund of 8000--gets mad because she thinks it supposed to be 10,000.

United States of America--the only country where, if you are the right kind of person, taxes pay you. And let me tell you, people get mad when they don't.

 

[Linguofreak]

Single mother of three walks into tax office:
W-2 shows 6000 of income;
Gets refund of 8000--gets mad because she thinks it supposed to be 10,000.

United States of America--the only country where, if you are the right kind of person, taxes pay you. And let me tell you, people get mad when they don't.

I've known hard-working, middle class people of good character to make a profit at tax time. Child tax credits work wonders. But quite frankly, that has a relativity minor impact on the budget compared to other things. Delving into what those are is Basement fodder, though.

 

[Andy44]

United States of America--the only country where, if you are the right kind of person, taxes pay you. And let me tell you, people get mad when they don't.

Well, the law is the law. If the government owes you money, they owe it, period. They don't have any problem coming after you when the shoe is on the other foot.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

These intertoobs are pretty useful sometimes. Started my car yesterday morning and airbag light was illuminated (uggh, $$$$$). Google make of car and 'airbag light' and get numerous instructions how to reset airbag module with a paper clip. Works, done in 2 minutes, money stays in my pocket.

Drat...airbag light is back on again after a week. I'm thinking I have a bad module. And inspection coming up next month. Drat...drat...drat...

 

[Urwumpe]

Drat...airbag light is back on again after a week. I'm thinking I have a bad module. And inspection coming up next month. Drat...drat...drat...

Better check it, a defect air bag can kill you.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Better check it, a defect air bag can kill you.

There was an airbag inflator recall on these Hondas, which I had done recently (which might be the source of my problem? Hmmm....:hmm. Air bag light indicates that the system will not deploy IIRC.

Found instructions to get the bag error codes from the OBDII port using a jumper wire. Will look at that today and see what that is all about. If it is related to the inflators Honda may take care of it.

---------- Post added at 10:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:32 AM ----------

Well, the law is the law. If the government owes you money, they owe it, period. They don't have any problem coming after you when the shoe is on the other foot.

As it is, excess tax payments during the year pretty much amounts to an interest-free loan to the government. That money that you are getting back is money you were not able to use over the previous year.

 

[Urwumpe]

As it is, excess tax payments during the year pretty much amounts to an interest-free loan to the government. That money that you are getting back is money you were not able to use over the previous year.

More so, in Germany your taxes are deducted and paid by your employer in first place and he can't calculate the income taxes properly since he is usually not allowed to know too much about your life off work. Thus, your employer here usually deducts too many taxes from your income. And it is your duty to get the difference back - if you want so.

I already managed to nearly double my income in a year. A few months of paid work so the income stayed below the minimum threshold. Many kilometers of travel to my workplace. Additional expenses that had been deductable, because I moved into a new apartment. In the end, I got negative taxes - I got far more back than I have paid.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

More so, in Germany your taxes are deducted and paid by your employer in first place and he can't calculate the income taxes properly since he is usually not allowed to know too much about your life off work. Thus, your employer here usually deducts too many taxes from your income. And it is your duty to get the difference back - if you want so.

I already managed to nearly double my income in a year. A few months of paid work so the income stayed below the minimum threshold. Many kilometers of travel to my workplace. Additional expenses that had been deductable, because I moved into a new apartment. In the end, I got negative taxes - I got far more back than I have paid.

Here you can select a number of exemptions based on child and marital status, etc.. that controls how much tax is deducted per pay period, but you can set the exemptions to a minimum so too much tax is pulled out, usually guaranteeing that you get a refund vs. having to pay a tax bill.

From an investment standpoint it's not a great practice but in a way it is a great means to enforce savings discipline (unless you take your refund check and blow it on shiny things).

---------- Post added at 12:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:01 PM ----------

Found instructions to get the bag error codes from the OBDII port using a jumper wire. Will look at that today and see what that is all about. If it is related to the inflators Honda may take care of it.

Well, that was easy. Jumped two connections on the ODBII port with a paper clip and the airbag light flashes a sequence that delivers the error code. Getting code 3-1: Open or increased resistance in driver's seat belt tensioner. Cleared the code and light is staying off. This is great news; this is easy to get to and may just involve cleaning some contacts if it ever comes back.

Interwebz FTW!