Another $50 million will come from requiring online retailers like Amazon that do not have a physical presence in New York to collect sales taxes on purchases made by New Yorkers and remit them to the state.
So in the end this law will justify another costly hike in spending and cost the state a few million to defend in the federal courts before being struck down.
"The unusual document from the Vatican's office for migrants and itinerant people also warned that automobiles can be "an occasion of sin" -- particularly when used to make a dangerous passing maneuver or when used by prostitutes and their clients.
And it suggested prayer might come in handy -- performing the sign of the cross before starting off and saying the rosary along the way. The rosary was particularly well-suited to recitation by all in the car, it said, since its "rhythm and gentle repetition does not distract the driver's attention.""
I took the time last night to give the new DRM free "iTunes Plus" store a whirl. While the selection is small right now it includes many albums that are very good. Last night I upgraded my "Huey Lewis and the News" album and bought two DRM free albums ( Royksopp and Coldplay ) for a grand total of under $20. The Coldplay album was only $8.
So the iTunes plus store removes the last barrier to me becoming a larger iTMS user DRM. I want to know that when I buy music I can use it where ever with little or no penalty. I want to share it with close friends and family without having to generate second-gen copies. I would like to know if I ever abandon iTunes or iPod's I can bring my music with me. iTunes plus does all of that and still managed to keep the price reasonable and even cheaper than Amazon most of the time.
My biggest complaint about iTunes plus ( and of the music store in general ) is very limited searching and browsing capability. I like to "Browse the stacks" on occasion and the iTMS makes it very hard to do that. If you don't know the name of the artist and the album doesn't make the "Top 10" it's almost impossible to find.
Some people have been complaining about the ID embedded in the track metadata, but I really don't care. I have no intent of posting these track in in a public location so I do not think of it as a restriction. I have a small concern that the *IAA's sue first, do research later mentality will end up clipping quite a few innocent iTunes users as hackers change the embedded metadata before posting tracks.
I just hope that other distributers catch up and start releasing DRM free tracks.
Summary: LJ suspended 500 journals after the group "Warriors for Innocence" complained about them. LJ claimed that journals and communities are being suspended after a review of policy but many fandom and recovery journals were caught up in the crossfire.
Many people may ask why should this bother them and here is the answer. Look how easily an outside group was able to lock-out legitimate users of this site. How long until one of your interests her on LJ becomes someone's perversion and a target of a smear campaign?
Not that I don't love all of you people that are not on my list, but I have locked down 95% of my previous posts and going forward the default security will be "Friends Only". I do have an online persona to keep up ya' know.
If you want to keep reading and are not on my flist already let me know.
Gastrointestinal chemistry has undone My Chemical Romance: The top-selling alt-rock band was forced to postpone Thursday night's show at Glens Falls Civic Center after food poisoning laid waste to their tour schedule.
They will try and make it back late 2007, but the show in Glens Falls this week is canceled. It's a shame since I know Mindy was looking forward to the show.
