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Sebastian › Likes
Go to Google today and hit 'I'm Feeling Lucky' with nothing in the search box. Cute. - http://www.google.com/
Bruce Lewis, Gary Burd, Joel Webber and 6 other people liked this
I like the FriendFeed Duck better ;-)
- Jesse Stay
FriendFeed is for smart people
فرشید, Fatima, Susan Beebe and 83 other people liked this
There's no way I was going to post that to Twitter :-)
- Jesse Stay
oh no
- VAL D. Zone
RT: @jesse: FriendFeed is for smart people. :) Retweeted from FF.
- Jimminy Fuller
Thanks Jimminy :-)
- Jesse Stay
well then i will have to delete my account
- Allen Stern
Im out too ..
- johnpiercy
If you comment here you're a smart person - no worries ;-)
- Jesse Stay
yay! jesse - the more i comment, the smarter i am?
- Allen Stern
This is why I love the tubes.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Im hanging around ,.,, but still cant get smarter .... heheheh Happy New Years Jesse !
- johnpiercy
Bye people..
- AJ Batac
Don't let Robert Scoble know about this ;-) He thinks he getting smarter over at Twitter...
- Jeff P. Henderson
Commenting because I want to be smart.
- Mellissa
And beautiful people too. I mean that in the good way, of course. ;)
- Martha
Martha, yes, lots of beautiful people - awesome people, too
- Jesse Stay
@Jeff He is thinks he is getting smarter there but he always needs to move the conversation off of that place because you can't really have a deep engaging brainshare there...
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
A Haiku: "To claim us all DEAD, To tell us we are all WRONG, makes one just look LAME"
- Johnny Worthington
Why not post it on Twitter? I'm all for saying what you think. Telling it how it is. (stirring things up.) ;) If you want a conversation, if you need to discuss anything, if you need to talk, it has to be FriendFeed.
- Sandra Large
Smarterer smarties choose FriendSmart =)
- Micah Wittman
Sandra, the problem with posting it on Twitter is people will take it the wrong way. Too hard to explain there.
- Jesse Stay
I wish to be smart, and thus I hang out in FriendFeed.
- imabonehead
Oh my god, I am so in the wrong place.
- Alix Whitmire
Cool. I hang out here too.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
Robert, definitely one of the reasons to hang out on FriendFeed! I believe the first time we met we arranged it on FriendFeed.
- Jesse Stay
Isn't FF for the smart-est people or is that too dangerous to say?
- Thomas Power
People always talk about 'smart' people - what does that even mean, anyway?
- Mona Nomura
this guy ------>
- sofarsoShawn
People that talk about the subjects you like and give you bits of information that you can drop in later conversation...
- Johnny Worthington
from iPhone
Mona, it means you're smart enough to ask what it means :-)
- Jesse Stay
If it's for smart people I better leave. ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Does liking count? :)
- zʍıɔ
Thank you, Mona. I was thinking the same thing.
- Michael Fidler
yeah !
- ★ Soner Gönül
Does being a smart ass qualify?
- Brian Sullivan
oh thanks Jesse for calling me that otherwise none care
- ffcode
Why I Keep Blogging About Search - http://www.cartoonbarry.com/2009...
John μller, Sebastian and Tony Ruscoe liked this
Sebastian liked this
A pony? But I wanted a unicorn! - http://twitter.com/dewitt...
Jennifer Dittrich, metalerik, Sebastian and 2 other people liked this
I decided that this will be my last tweet for a while. At least until I figure out an alternative model for posting them. Makes a suitable epitaph, don't you think?
- DeWitt Clinton
from Bookmarklet
Once I get my new (new new!) blog up and running I'll syndicate the feed out to Twitter (and Facebook, and FriendFeed). But it is time to put my money where my mouth is: you should always own the URL of record for anything you create that you want remembered.
- DeWitt Clinton
One of these days I'll register a domain name.
- Amit Patel
I paid a not insignificant sum for dewittclinton.com but haven't started using it yet. Owned by a squatter before me, if you can believe it.
- DeWitt Clinton
I always think your name is Clinton DeWitt. You should see if that url is available for a bargain basement price.
- Clare Dibble
Did the squatter actually know you, or just an opportunist registering any prominent name he saw?
- DGentry
I like your Twitter background.
- Shey, Jamaican of FF
You've successfully out-shined the Internet fame of your namesake. dewittclinton.com was squatted before dewittclintonpark.com was.
- Bill Strathearn
FriendFeed is a lot nicer now that the idiots have left. :-)
guruvan (Rob Nelson), Sean Kelly, Sebastian and 79 other people liked this
Scoble said it right :)
- Christopher Galtenberg
Or maybe I finally got around to blocking all of them. Heheh.
- Robert Scoble
Note: I did not send this over to Twitter. It would encourage them.
- Robert Scoble
wrong. I'm still here!
- Jim in Real Time
:)
- Edgar Rodríguez
Why don't you invite some more over here Robert.
- Jimminy Fuller
Jimminy: nah. it's really nice here lately. Very quiet, can get a lot done.
- Robert Scoble
Snap Jim, I was gonna say that!
- Mellissa
Jim and Mellissa: you two aren't idiots. Proof? I haven't blocked you yet. :-)
- Robert Scoble
Most likely you have blocked the idiots, because I know some are still around *grin*
- Rene Wirtz
Wow, I must not be an idiot either. Perhaps there is hope for me yet.
- Brent - Loving Life
WWGD ?
- Desirade
... must ... resist... commenting.
- Louis Gray
Too bad for you scoble. I am still here ;)
- alfred westerveld
DO ANYBODY NO HOW TO TELL IF SCOBLE IS BLOCKING YOU?
- Gunny doesn't side-hug™
...tongue ... bleeding...
- Josh Haley
Why ?, are you so hard on Cristo ?
- Eric Logan
Ya what is he talking about, im still here too!
- sean percival
That does actually make up for the sense of benign neglect I seem to feel from the FF developers. Excellent observation, Robert.
- Mark Edwards
And the 2009 Gold Medal for Comment Baiting, Freestyle, goes to Robert Scoble from the American team. ;)
- John Craft
If we only could say this here.
- Slow
John: thank you, thank you very much! You crack me up.
- Robert Scoble
But Robert, you were one of the ones that left :-)
- Keith Rowland
Who are those idiots? name them ;)
- Jeunelle Foster
I'm still here as well. Barely alive, but still here. (ok maybe a bit of an exaggeration)
- Mathew™ one of a kind
Home sweeeet home :)
- Johni Fisher
good to see
- Jerry Perez
It's good to know I'm not an idiot. ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Oh, so that was the master plan? 1. Declare friendfeed dead 2. Idiots leave. 3. Enjoy the good stuff without them around any more.
- April Russo (app103)
April, that's not a bad plan actually. Finally Robert's master plan is becoming clear ;)
- Glenn Slaven
April: bbbbwwwwaaaahhhhhhhaaaaahhhhhhaaaaaaa. Said while rubbing hands together in evil fashion.
- Robert Scoble
Keith: I never left. I've been here almost every day since July. I have reduced the number of hours I spend here from about 10 to 10 minutes, though. :-)
- Robert Scoble
I am still here, kidding aside you should a least read the book before you marginalize the idiots. http://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-...
- Eric Logan
a good ten minutes..............
- Alzheimer's Insight
I'm trying to work out if I should bite my tongue or just open mouth/insert foot...
- George Hall (Australia)
George: insert foot!
- Robert Scoble
George: wash it first!
- April Russo (app103)
I must say I'm very disappointed the entire world beat me to the "I'm still here" joke. <sigh>
- David Gaw
Wrong Robert! I'm still here! (but keeping tucked away in the background to fool you....)
- Sandra Large
Finally, Louis Gray GONE! :)
- sofarsoShawn
I am not
- Glen, Bespectacled Elder
Yeah yeah, Shawn.
- Louis Gray
Louis is still here?
- WorldofHiglet
Just JOkkkkkking, you know I <3 you LG =;o)
- sofarsoShawn
I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111eleven
- Jim Norris
great to see you back here at friendfeed.. it's still rocking in it's own way.. welcome back and great new year
- Jaap Willem
I've found even if they're not idiots there are some times people that are just so negative or draining you have to block them, at least for a short period. I wish there was a way to do that which wasn't offensive.
- Jesse Stay
Hey Jessie - was hangin' with Damon today and your name came up. Damon ROCKS MY SOCKS.
- Mona Nomura
@jessethey should get indeed like a mute button for 30 days or something??
- Jaap Willem
from IM
Nice to see you still here, Robert. Hope the wife and kids are well.
- Martha
what idiots?
- ffcode
me? or the meme guys? things are the same here best of the day doesn't look promising still
- ffcode
either that or they've blocked you - something you could have done to them... blocking is one of FF's superior features
- Chris Heath
That's great right !
- ★ Soner Gönül
Scoble isn't blocking me. Dave Winer is though. I'm honestly not sure how to feel about that. :)
- Otto
Is it a badge of honor to be blocked?
- DGentry
Mona, Damon rocks my socks as well - have you met Marina Martin yet? She's one of my favorite Seattle peeps.
- Jesse Stay
Jaap, a mute button would be nice, something less harsh sounding than "Block" - maybe a "you're grounded" button?
- Jesse Stay
I'm not sure where friendfeed is going, but I'm still very curious.
- Mark Essel
thats right!
- Rafael
Jesse - I totally like the "you're grounded" button concept!
- Robyn Hawk
Interesting observation
- polou/indigo_bow
Checking out the seomoz decision making flowchart http://skitzzo.com/archive...
Sebastian liked this
In Case Of Emergency, Watch This Erectile Dysfunction Ad Before Getting News - http://daggle.com/case-em...
Sebastian and John μller liked this
Reading TwitterRank: Finding Topic-sensitive Influential Twitterers - http://www.mysmu.edu/staff...
Sebastian liked this
A Lesson in How To Check Out Businesses and Identify Internet Scams - Springfield Computer Guy - http://www.springfieldcomputerguy.com/blog...
Sebastian and Matt Cutts liked this
NYT Runs Quack, Self-Serving Anti-Google OpEd - http://paul.kedrosky.com/archive...
Gary Burd, Robert Konigsberg, Simon and 7 other people liked this
I was hoping someone would savage this idiotic op-ed.
- Rob Shillingsburg
Webmaster Checklist, Nostalgia Edition
Tudor Bosman, Murat YILDIZ, Bret Taylor and 3 other people liked this
Get America Online Keyword
- Philipp Lenssen
Register for Webring
- Philipp Lenssen
Submit to DMOZ
- Philipp Lenssen
Meta tags: revisit-after, keywords (repeated multiple times)
- John μller
Collect enough blinking GIFs to prettify the page
- Sebastian
Fake-paper background images
- John μller
Pretty horizontal rule images.
- Philipp Lenssen
Weekly launch dumbTruck or a similar tool to submit all your URIs to all search engines out there.
- Sebastian
Submit to Infoseek. Check rankings. Tweak page. Submit to Infoseek...
- Matt Cutts
Meta tags: to use commas or not? Badges: Add "This page works best in Netscape 2.0" badge.
- Matt Cutts
Submit url to "Free For All" (FFA) pages. Prepare for resulting onslaught of email spam.
- Matt Cutts
Sign up for ad network with pop-ups and Punch The Monkey ads.
- Alex Power
Submit URL to other search engines such as Excite, Lycos, and HotBot.
- Alex Power
Create a non-frames version for visitors not using Netscape 3.0 or above.
- Tony Ruscoe
Add hit counter.
- Tony Ruscoe
Add some Java Applets with marquees and rippling water
- John μller
Add obfuscated links to all doorway pages on the home page. <a href="dwp1">.</a><a href="dwp2">.</a>...
- Sebastian
Participate in some SEOguru's 'spider traps', aka distributed link farms. (2000+)
- Sebastian
add Guest books for users to view and sign.
- John Wang
On planes all day today, but reading http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2009...
Sebastian and Chatsohbet liked this
In western culture it seems to be both proper etiquette to a) cough into your hands and b) shake hands when meeting. Isn't this suboptimal when it comes to avoiding flu to spread?
Tony Ruscoe and Sebastian liked this
In China, people cough into the open, and usually don't shake hands. They do usually eat from the same food plates during group dinner though (which public service announcements here warn against).
- Philipp Lenssen
When I was a server I got in the habit of coughing into my sleeve.
- Shannon Jiménez
How long are you going to be in China? When I visited this summer, I found it very interesting to see how differently the various flu factors were handled (and how the messaging was done on posters, etc) there in comparison to Europe (well, Switzerland).
- John μller
Why tinyurl.com and its cousins are a blight upon the internet - http://weblog.masukomi.org/2009...
Sebastian and John μller liked this
FriendFeed should be faster again. We were had some network issues which caused a lot of slowness this past week, but I think it's fixed now. Let me know if you are still encountering any extreme slowness.
"Serhat Ozan", Adriano, Jeremy (on vacation) and 121 other people liked this
Will this mean I'll be able to upload pictures again? EDIT This does not mean I can upload photos now.
- Admiral Anika
Thanks for the update Paul! ;)
- AJ Batac
Mainly just had problems with email posting and the bookmarklet. The rest seemed fairly okay.
- Jason Huebel
I've been told that I'm extremely slow much of the time, but I don't think that's what you meant. Thanks for taking care of the issue, Paul.
- Jim in Real Time
Does seem very zippy, thanks team!
- Stephen Mack
Time to time, it's slow. Overall fast (again), however.
- Ozkan Altuner
I think the issues were directly related to Cristo's 11 MB PDF upload.
- Louis Gray
Thank you, Paul!
- Holly Rae
it looks faster now. thanks
- Hakan İyice
I still see Twitter updates coming in here 10 -15 minutes later
- Jorge Escobar
Thanks Paul. Much better.
- Roberto Bonini
Im experiencing extreme slowness ,,,, but then again , Im 53
- johnpiercy
nice also to know your not Boarding up the Windows
- johnpiercy
It did seem a little faster this afternoon.
- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
The Twitter issue is a separate problem Jorge -- our realtime feed from them is gone, but we hope to get it restored soon.
- Paul Buchheit
The Twitter feed went entirely???? o_O
- Roberto Bonini
It would be great if you could speed up importing of Twitter feeds. The slowness has been an issue for me lately.
- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
Got it, Paul. Thanks!
- Jorge Escobar
Nice to know that there is indeed a problem with Twitter importing being slow, and I'm not just going crazy.
- Tyson Key
Awesome news!
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
Sweet
- Josh Haley
Meanwhile, Dad's kids with his new wife get what kind of toys?
- Matthew DeVries
Matthew, FriendFeed users have no reason to complain about our toys. And even if we did, bitterness doesn't help.
- Bruce Lewis
FriendFeed is dying for me. In fact. it's just about gone. I use it as a control room and discussion space for my Twitter feed, and a searchable archive. Discussion threads are down about 80 percent. "Likes" are off about 90 percent. There's no real time feed in from Twitter any more. Sad.
- Jay Rosen
Agreed, Jay. My personal life is in a bit of an upheaval right now, which hasn't helped, but the FB acquisition took the wind out of the sails for me. It feels like there's no future, or worse, a future wired up to the "friending" criteria of my Facebook account. I use the services COMPLETELY differently, however. Inbound updates continue, since they're automatic, but this is the first comment I've posted in weeks. Sad, indeed.
- Ken Kennedy
+1 Jay
- Daniel J. Pritchett
I am using Twitter and FB more and more lately. On the plus side, it's strengthening some real world connections. I'm missing out on the cool new stuff but I think I had gone overboard on that front.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
I like FriendFeed, but I happen to find myself using Twitter and IRC more as of late. I guess I've probably just burnt myself and others out, given that I don't seem to have much in the way of compelling content and commentary these days, and that I just don't feel as motivated as I'd like to. :(
- Tyson Key
Thanks
- zizukabi
Thanks for the info and the update.
- giuseppe c. | markgreene
Still seems to be some slowness. The Innovation Management Room (er...Group) hasn't updated for several hours: http://friendfeed.com/innovat...
- Hutch Carpenter
Thanks for throwing some love over to FF :)
- Susan Beebe
Is there currently an issue with posting from FF to update Facebook -or is Facebook broken after the re-design ? i dont get anything posted to FB anymore which worked fine before yd
- Del_
Hi Paul, I know it has been a while since this post. But over the last 48 hours my Twitter updates have quit showing up in FF. I tried manually refreshing. Then I removed the account so I could just add it back in. When trying to do that I get the following message: "We could not find the given account" I haven't changed anything. Any thoughts on why this is happening? I haven't had any trouble until now. Thanks.
- Mary-Lynn
My Twitter feed is coming into FF much faster now - thanks! *Edit - Blog feed, too!
- Kurt Starnes
Ah, yes, search is much faster now. Thank you.
- April Russo (app103)
Dear commentators: It's more work, but plz spend more time on research & analysis, less on wild speculation & what-ifs.
righini riprova, John μller, Sebastian and 3 other people liked this
Aw. But then I'd have nothing at all to say! And what would all the Apple rumorists do?
- Akiva Moskovitz
What type of commentators do you have in mind?
- Louis Gray
Heh, Akiva! And Louis, actually a broad swath of commentators. Initially, I was frustrated specifically with tech bloggers, "ZOMG, I read on this other blog that maybe possibly [x] is going to totally do [y]. Then it's gonna kill [z]!!!" All this speculation on [x] (along with the must-be-like-crack desire to dictate a zero-sum game) is tiresome. Too many blogs/bloggers (which I hesitate to name) derive their traffic from scoops, often obtained in the context of amoral or illegal activities to boot.
- Adam Lasnik
Scoops come from who you know. But analysis... that's more powerful. That shows how you *think*, not just whether you know leakers and/or make wild-assed guesses. I like bloggers / journalists who study trends, who explain how things work or why things work, who help me understand what *is*, who help me get more out of what I have access to now. And I have a hell of a lot more respect...
more...
- Adam Lasnik
Adam, it sounds like pile on to this I just wrote up yesterday morning. :) http://blog.louisgray.com/2009...
- Louis Gray
Unfortunately, I think due to a scary lessening of attention spans (sometimes mine included!), it seems that the quick-sell, the hot scoop gets a lot more eyeballs than the thoughtful analysis. Maybe too many of us are tired, not only too tired to write thoughtful stuff, but too tired to consume it.
- Adam Lasnik
That is true as well. Note the post above talks about how there is an obvious problem, but the cards are stacked against the problem getting solved, as the priorities and incentives are in the wrong place.
- Louis Gray
HOLY CRAP, Louis (and no, I don't normally use all caps), but indeed you comprehensively hit upon exactly the frustrations I've been feeling. It's gratifying that I'm not alone, and it's also embarrassing that I've been so busy lately that I've not done a better job seeking out the more good content and thoughtful writers. Thanks for clueing me into your post!
- Adam Lasnik
Now that it's clear so many of us agree on the problems, I wish we all had more specific, doable, and promising solutions <sigh>.
- Adam Lasnik
Happy to help, Adam. The post was fairly visible. At the very least, a few folks are thinking about it more. I'll keep doing what I'm doing, and you keep me in check. Any time you run across opportunities for me to be better educated through introductions to new folks and programs wouldn't help either. I know you're not housed in an isolation booth. :)
- Louis Gray
making previsions and getting them right makes the user feel good and boosts their self-esteem. Also it's like playing the lottery, where only if you play you "could" win. Some people speak randomly just to get it right sometimes.
- righini riprova
Microsoft loses patent appeal; Word and Office to be barred from sale starting January 11 - http://www.engadget.com/2009...
Sebastian liked this
2010 Prediction: Google will come out with a new checkin that will get your favorite drink delivered to ur seat in the bar before u sit dwn
Sebastian, zooz, Isola Virtuale and 2 other people liked this
I think Robert is posting from a bar and has had one too many! ;-)
- Jeff P. Henderson
:)
- cybergerac
They do, It's call a good bar tender. Sometimes it takes a human touch.
- Tim Laughlin
Christmas theme live at SERoundtable.com http://www.seroundtable.com/ here is a pic http://tweetphoto.com/7015166
Sebastian and John μller liked this
The rise of machine-written journalism - http://www.wired.co.uk/news...
Sebastian and Lora Lufark liked this
Google Maps India evolves driving directions to use local landmarks - http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009...
Sebastian and Tony Ruscoe liked this
street names are often unknown, so they just describe what you'll pass by
- Andy Baio
RT @mattcutts: Firefox adds support for multi-process plugins: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Interne... A nice win for users--congrats to the Firefox folks!
Sebastian liked this
Abstraction - xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe - http://xkcd.com/676/
Mark Douglass, Peter Fedin, Sebastian and 11 other people liked this
Alt Text: If I'm such a god, why isn't Maru *my* cat?
- Rachel Lea Fox
from Bookmarklet
"If your computer asks you if you're a God, You. Say. YES."
- Kevin Fox
I do occasionally wish I also had Maru as a cat!
- Rachel Lea Fox
Opera: The Forgotten Browser - Geeks.com - http://www.geeks.com/techtip...
polou/indigo_bow and Sebastian liked this
it's a shame more people don't use Opera. Long before Google Chrome was out there, tech users could count on Chrome to be fast loading and even serve pages that were syntactically correct.
- Brian Wallace
Getting plagarized by Microsoft is going to be the best thing that happened to Plurk, for all the free PR: http://arstechnica.com/microso...
Sebastian liked this
Chrome Passes Safari in Market Share - http://theappleblog.com/2009...
Sebastian, Itachi and John μller liked this
"As predicted, Chrome has eclipsed Safari in web browser market share. According to web analytics firm Net Applications, Chrome’s share is now 4.4 percent, just edging out Safari at 4.37 percent."
- Atul Arora
from Bookmarklet
I really dislike the American way of quoting prices without tax. When I have to pay for something, I mostly care about how much money I have to pay overall, and not where the money goes.
Anton Bosman, Sebastian, John μller and 31 other people liked this
While this is not too bad when all you have to deal with is a 7-9% sales tax, it's annoying in the case of airline tickets, where "taxes and fees" may be up to 50% of the overall price.
- Tudor Bosman
That's not American, that's the airlines
- Johnny Worthington
They've been trying to pass a law in Canada to force airlines to advertise their fares "all-in" but the airline lobbyists are winning so far.
- Kenton
yeah the sales tax can annoy me to no end... mostly because I'm a total scrooge. Also when they add euro VAT to stuff just before checkout on Amazon, I always have to think about why the price is suddenly 25% higher (Danish VAT is 25% normally included the advertised price)
- Rasmus Lauridsen
Forcing them to add tax in will just make things cost more. Because lets say something costs $299, or $320 with tax. If they're forced to advertise total price, then guess what will happen? Retailers *love* their -9 pricing schemes. They'll raise the price to make the total have that 9 at the end again. They certainly won't *lower* the price to do that...
- Otto
Otto: the same argument applies for any change in the pricing structure. Suppose the situation were reversed: suppose prices included the tax, and retailers were considering removing the tax from advertised prices; they'd rise the price such that the new advertised price ended with a 9...
- Tudor Bosman
from Android
Tudor: I agree with your logic. Both cases are true. Which means that I'm for the status quo, I suppose. :)
- Otto
Completely agree Tudor. That was the biggest shocks when we moved to the US. Back in Turkey, everything is tax included and you know how much you are going to spend: no surprises.
- Eren Emre Kanal
<side-rant>Checked on price for round trip flight from a Calgary, Canada to LAX. IT WAS DOUBLE THE PRICE compared to LAX to Calgary. Same exact flight time, other parameters except reverse starting point that is.</side-rant>
- Micah Wittman
There's a political reason why some would want it separate: it makes it more visceral what the government's take is. You feel the sales tax as an increase on what you wanted to pay.
- Ray Cromwell
Not including the tax encourages consumption. We need the economic stimulus :).
- Gary Burd
Otto: also, people understand very, very well how to compare prices -- "lower is better". This is why a merchant deciding to include the tax in the advertised price unilaterally would lose in the marketplace; people would see their prices as higher, and would be dissuaded from shopping there, even before thinking about the fact that taxes are included. This is also why, I think, prices...
more...
- Tudor Bosman
Micah, an article in the Calgary Herald on Saturday had someone compare prices from Toronto to Vancouver (about $1,000.00) v.s. Buffalo to Seattle and then shuttle to Vancouver (about $500.00). The taxes are killers.
- Kenton
I don't want it to be different than how I expect it
- Glen, Bespectacled Elder
There is a big problem that can occur for the companies with this adding the tax into the price and displaying the total on the tags & advertising instead of the base price. Think about a large chain of stores with locations all over the US, where the tags and advertising are made in bulk and then distributed to stores all over the country. Or the stuff is pre-tagged at a central...
more...
- April Russo (app103)
That's why you abolish state taxes with a single GST
- Bryce Roney
from iPhone
Then what do you do about areas like in depressed parts of NJ where they have a 50% reduction in the taxes to encourage businesses to open shop and create jobs there, and people to go and shop there?
- April Russo (app103)
Japan made it a law that retailer must make it crystal clear if it is with or without. Lots of parentheses after prices now. In japan it's five pct consumption tax everywhere but airlines still play games!
- Rick Cogley
from iPhone
Taxes that are not separated are taxes that are not noticed (and thus, easier to raise). Take a look at gasoline taxes in the US, the amount of which few at the pump could identify if they had to. Keeping them out of the price helps to keep them lower overall.
- Andrew Leyden
If you abolished state and local sales taxes and replaced it with a single GST, wouldn't that mean that in some states that didn't have a sales tax, that consumers would be suddenly paying more? And what gets taxed? Some states would lose money if you remove the tax from some items, while other states consumers would end up paying more because items that were previously exempt from sales tax, now are taxed.
- April Russo (app103)
We need an augmented reality app that can just tell you as you have the camera on the price what the real price is :-) Yes lazy don't want to do my own calculations solution, but sales tax is always stupid % like 7% or 8%
- Rasmus Lauridsen
I liked it better when NJ had a 5% tax. Paid less and it was easy to figure out in your head. Now it's 7% and 3.5% in Urban Enterprise Zones.
- April Russo (app103)
April: that's a fair point; what I'm suggesting would make life harder for retailers, while making it easier for consumers. It's a worthy trade-off, in my opinion. Also, stores that operate in multiple locations already have knowledge about the local tax rules; after all, they need to calculate and remit the taxes to the appropriate authorities; that information now has to end up on labels.
- Tudor Bosman
Although big box stores would probably not be affected. The few big stores I shop at (Safeway, Walgreens, Fry's, Costco, Best Buy) don't have labels on items, but only on the shelves (except for bulk groceries and meats, which are presumably cut, weighed, and labeled in the local store anyway). And they already print different labels for different stores, because of time-limited, regional promotions.
- Tudor Bosman
Rasmus, here the sales tax is 8.25%. To compute this, divide the price by twelve, then subtract 1% of the result.
- Ruchira S. Datta
One part of the reason why they're separate is to prevent double-taxation: the revenue before tax is considered earned income, and is taxed as such, leaving the sales tax collected separate and untaxed. If they're rolled into one price, it's harder to determine if the sales tax was charged, or if the price was simply higher. Additionally, since sales tax is a levy on the consumer, not...
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- Mark Trapp
Taxes and fees are a little over $30 on my cable/internet bill, almost $60 for my water/trash/electricity. It's so depressing to open my bill to see the total, then getting to the bottom of the page or the next page to see all the little extra fees.
- Admiral Anika
Mark: they can be separate on the receipt, and bundled together on the tag. Or display both: (in small font) $35 + $2.89 tax = (big font) $37.89.
- Tudor Bosman
Tudor, the obligation is on the consumer, not the retailer, to pay the levy to the government. One other thing I'm thinking about is there is a subset of the population that's tax exempt or partially tax exempt, and would not pay the big, stated price. So then is it a discount, or was the price incorrectly stated? Is the retailer trying to tax an individual who is exempt? Leaving it up...
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- Mark Trapp
Mark: How is the tax-exempt population dealt with today? Do I go into Walgreens and show some form of ID at the checkout counter, and I don't get charged sales tax? I don't think I've ever seen this happen.
- Tudor Bosman
I know some *items* are tax-exempt (food, and possibly others, depending on locality), but that's not a problem; the store already knows which ones they are, as they levy the tax appropriately.
- Tudor Bosman
Tudor: yeah. You have documentation either on file with the store (or you bring the documentation to the register) that states you're exempt, and you wind up not paying it. NPOs, certain income levels in certain jurisdictions, and public workers in some special cases are all tax-exampt. Having worked with sales tax over the years, it's a hard concept to convey when it all goes into the...
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- Mark Trapp
Sales Tax exemption depends on various local and state laws. Stores deal with it automatically for cases where certain types of items are exempt (like food items in Kentucky are tax-free). Other cases are where items are purchased for resale, in which you generally have to set up an account with the stores in question and file documentation with them of your tax-exempt status. And that...
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- Otto
Thinking about this a little more, I guess the point I'm making is that the government only intercedes after the act of sale: that is, the retailer isn't in business with the government. The setup that exists now is that the retailer controls their business up until the point of sale, where their hand is forced to collect taxes for the government. When you change the advertised price to...
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- Mark Trapp
Mark: I can see your point, although I don't empathize with it :) Maybe it's because I lived outside of the US until 1997, and the system I describe is in use throughout Europe; it was baffling to me to not know exactly how much I have to pay until the register. Two prices on the tag would, I think, satisfy most folks: if you're tax-exempt, you pay the first one, and the second one (including tax) is in a bigger font, simply because that's what most consumers will pay.
- Tudor Bosman
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