I got an interesting e-mail from a friend that contained a link to a video. It brings into question the legality of Income Tax. The thing is, this only affects people who don’t know how the tax laws work anyway. If you properly use the tax laws you can avoid paying the majority of taxes as it is. All that is required is educating yourself some on how they work. There are plenty of books and forums and help out there to learn how to get around paying taxes perfectly legally. I am worried this is going to become a Michael Moore type video. Anyone interested in watching it, the whole thing can be found at Google Video. It is about 1 hour and 45 minutes long. I also don’t like what it is called… America: Freedom to Fascism. They do present a very good argument, but there is one flaw. How many millions of people would be out of jobs if income taxes suddenly went away?
Update: I actually e-mailed the director of this movie, Aaron Russo and he brought up a good point. My argument almost makes it sound like I mean to say that Americans pay income tax just to employ accountants. I didn’t mean that. If America is doing something wrong, then by all means fix it. But a sudden change would be bad. I am just trying to point out that such a sudden and significant change could cause more upheaval and problems than the potential benefits of that change is worth. In the richest country in the world with the richest people in the world, we have to be doing something right. Anyone can become wealthy in this country, it is just up to the person as to whether or not it would be worth the effort. I also want to thank Mr. Russo for e-mailing me back so swiftly.
I have seen a lot of controversy about MacHeist, MacAppADay and other free Mac software. Some people say it is great, while many others say it is really hurting the shareware community. Personally I think it is a great boon to the entire Mac community as a whole. That is based on my experience though. I had been planning on purchasing a Mac for about the past 6 months. Then when I learned about MacHeist and started participating it pushed me over the edge and I finally bought one. I can’t be the only person that was on the fence and ended up buying one because of all of these events. Yes, maybe the shareware developers weren’t getting as much money as they could, but I think it helped create a larger market for them in the long run.
Well there are many free software things like MacHeist and MacAppADay popping up all over the internet it seems. The process of getting the software is as fun as actually getting it free. A new one that I am starting to see a little bit of info about is called WasteAWeekend.com from the creators of MacAppADay. I don’t know much about it, but they have some interesting ads they have created and a neat little video below.
I recently ordered a new 17″ Mac Book Pro from Apple computers and I received a nice big box from them yesterday, so here is the unboxing.
Box from Apple Computers Hosted on Zooomr
Open Box From Apple Computers Hosted on Zooomr
And now for everything that was inside:
What I Received from Apple Computers Hosted on Zooomr
Turns out the only thing inside that giant box with all that packing material from Apple was the neoprene computer case that I ordered with the computer. Such a tease.
I think it is really great that Apple wants to get the products to me as fast as they are available, but I think it might be a little more efficient if they at least waited to give me the case with the computer. I have no use for the case on it’s own. To me this was a big waste of shipping space and materials when the case could have easily been shipped inside the same box as the actual computer. If they come from different warehouses, I can understand that. Maybe ship the neoprene case in a somewhat smaller box with less packing materials, I don’t think the case is going to break that easily.
I will post pictures of the actual unboxing when the actual computer arrives next week. Sorry for the tease, I just thought this was rather funny.
I have been using YouMail for about a month now and I have to say it is really great. It is a free online voicemail box for your cell phone. Basically you set it up online and then you do some setup on your cell and that is it. Some would compare it to GrandCentral, but with this one you don’t have to change your phone number or anything which I really like. Maybe once GrandCentral comes out with some local numbers in my area I might use it for a business phone number, but for now YouMail is best. I think it is pretty handy because I can check my voicemail on the internet without using my minutes. You can also set it up so if a certain number calls, you can have specific voicemail greetings for each person. I had a little trouble setting up my Blackberry Pearl from T-Mobile because it is a little more complex but I called T-Mobile for support and they helped me out right away. I only have a couple people that have a specially recorded greeting, but I really like the idea.
