Cordless telephones

[Taxed and Spent]

you are misquoting. It really was something like "if you really want to mess things up, let's kill all the lawyers".

Not saying I agree in this day and age.

[gfretwell]

I know it worked long after they supposedly dropped service on my old Amps66 bag phone. If you dialed 911 it went through and if you tried a regular number you got a recording telling you to enter a credit card for a $3 a minute phone call. I carried that in my boat and car until I stopped getting dial tone. It lasted about 2 years after the official end of service. I never actually made a call but I would check it now and then. One day it just stopped. I thought it was the perfect phone plan and the old Amps66 phone would get out when your little flip phone showed no service, particularly in a boat with a marine antenna.

[gfretwell]

Your fellow Scots must think there is something wrong with you. Do you put little umbrellas in there too? ;-)

[gfretwell]

In the 60s, I would not have had any glasses if Shell did not give you one for every fill up. I still have a few of the Christmas specials. (stemmed things with painted christmas stuff on them)

[gfretwell]

I get them in the giant package at the price club pretty cheap. Postits and 3x5 cards are my 2 throwbacks to the pre computer days. I used to use IBM cards but I am down to my last 4000 or so and I am conserving them.

[gfretwell]

Nope, just socialism, something you must be familiar with over there.

[Ralph Mowery]

It probably stopped because the phone service went from analog to all digital. Similar to what the TV stations did a few years back.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Yes, our government steals money through taxes, but I don't expect private companies to do it aswell.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

I use huge amounts of postits as I have a shit memory. I basically use them to remind me what I'm meant to be doing the following day. There's a big pile of them on my desk (as in little pads so they stay still) with things written on each, and I arrange some in a line in the evening so I know what I'm doing the next day.

I get the fake ones on Ebay for literally 10 times less than the 3M ones.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

I'm the complete opposite of a snob. I just find most alcoholic drinks bitter. To me bitter is my mouth telling me I'm eating something toxic. Plants which are poisonous usually taste bitter.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Then why doesn't everyone use schedule C?

Same here, well about a 1/4 of it.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

It's called VAT here, and gets paid once. It's a very stupid system, as a business can be VAT registered, then claim back VAT on things they buy, then pay it again when the customers buy the product. So if there's a long chain of businesses buying parts from each other, you can pay it, get it back, pay it, get it back, pay it, etc. Must cost the government (and the businesses) a tonne in paperwork.

[gfretwell]

True but they did keep the tower equipment up a lot longer that I expected. I guess it stayed until it broke, making money on the $3 a minute phone business. The digital phones were not really that reliable until they got enough infrastructure in place. Too many "zero bar" areas.

[gfretwell]

911 is the government, they just have the telco's collecting the tax.

[gfretwell]

It can only be used to offset business income, not wages.

Here it depends on how much of the home you can demonstrate was used for the business. It is best if it is isolated space. I actually got audited once because I was not showing an office but I was writing off office expenses. The IRS guy was great in helping me define what my home office was and how to claim it. I got to write off my whole computer room/shop. I ended up getting more money back.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

So the telco is an accomplice to the fraud then. It's about time the courts took the governments to court and had them all jailed. For example, I'm paying for the education of other people's kids. I don't have kids, and if I did I'd home school them. And I bet you they wouldn't give me a rebate for that either. I never authorised the payment from my bank account to the local schools, yet it's taken anyway. Perhaps we need a rebellion?

[James Wilkinson Sword]

I bet you there's a phonebooth surcharge on your bill too.

They still have them here, but they don't work because kids vandalise them.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

But it's still a tiny fraction of your profits, so not worth the bother. Some people just don't get percentages.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Er, easy enough to only buy a bag with all good fruit in it. If you cant find one, ask the checkout girl for money off it.

I once bought some packs of floor tiles for a considerable discount because they'd been dropped and many were broken. I knew I needed a lot of half tiles for edges anyway, so they were fine for my purpose.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

The same bullshit happens here, this is my nearest petrol station (at a supermarket):

Thankfully they just display pence, or it'd have two decimal places. Never noticed that, they've got 0.7p on the end! 7?!? I guess one did 0.9, one undercut it to 0.8, then another to 0.7?