Humor Random Comments Thread

[MaverickSawyer]

It was also the day they announced the winning numbers for that MASSIVE Powerball jackpot.

 

[Urwumpe]

The Pastafarians in Templin are now suing the state road administration of Brandenburg because they refuse to allow them an information sign showing the FSM symbol and notify of a "pasta service every Friday, 10 AM", similar to such road signs for other religious communities, especially the various Christian churches. See for example this abomination:

http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/just...paghettimonster-schilderstreit-a-1085744.html

 

[mojoey]

What do you know, some Germans have a sense of humor.

 

[birdmanmike]

SpaceX launched Jason-3 on Jan 18th, doesn't quite make sense. Maybe a bot hit that day?

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

 

[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...