Frederick Damasus's Blog: News

Stairway to Tax Heaven - The Game

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What's with me and Tax issues of recent? In the space of five days, I've read, discussed and researched about taxation more than I have done my entire life. Over the weekend I participated in an Ideation Meetup hosted by <a href="http://focushub.net/" target="_blank">Focushub</a> and the issue of Multiple Taxation, how it affects Startups and the role of technology was addressed. It was an interesting session, learnt whole lot. </div>
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Fast forward to Monday, I'm playing a major role in planning a Tax awareness campaign by my organization as part of an ongoing development project. In this part of the world people are reluctant to pay taxes and rightly so. They don't see the result of taxes, they generate their own power, provide their own water and even protect themselves... Why should they pay Tax some would rightly ask. We hope to change their mindset and let them the need for taxes and also in turn put pressure on the government to use public finances judiciously. </div>
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And then before the close of work on Monday, was the big one... The big reveal taking the world by storm... #PanamaPapers. Unfortunately my favorite soccer star was named along side power people in the world who have offshore investments so as to hide part of their wealth. </div>
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But who says we can't have fun with it? </div>
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Play the #PanamaPapers <a href="https://panamapapers.icij.org/stairway_tax_heaven_game/" target="_blank">game</a> to see what it's like to be rich enough to avoid tax. </div>
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The international consortium of investigative journalism (ICJ) has created a choose your own adventure game. </div>
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As revealed in the leaked files from Panama City law firm Mossack Fonseca, they’ve all been at it, so playing <a href="https://panamapapers.icij.org/stairway_tax_heaven_game/" target="_blank">Stairway to Tax Heaven</a>, you can either pick to be a sports star, politician or business exec as they try to avoid paying their share.</div>
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Play <a href="https://panamapapers.icij.org/stairway_tax_heaven_game/" target="_blank">here</a></div>
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Not as easy as I thought.</div>
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News Stairway to Tax Heaven - The Game

What's with me and Tax issues of recent? In the space of five days, I've read, discussed and researched about taxation more than I ...

The Homeless Coder

09:04:00 Kylo Ren 0

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A few weeks after the launch, he had made about $10,000.<br />
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But as at last update, Leo the Homeless Coder is still homeless. He has yet to touch a penny of his money.<br />
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When his app launched, he was center of national attention. No one has followed up on Grand. Grand and his teacher Patrick, the 23-year-old programmer who taught Leo how to code, haven't really wanted media attention.<br />
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But the other part of their story is as important as the first. It provides deeper insights into the mindset of a homeless person, and the challenges with trying to find quick, easy solutions for people.<br />
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It's a much more complicated story than anyone would have expected.<br />
The whole point of the experience, or at least the goal when the two started out, was to teach Grand a skill that would help him make money to sustain a life off of the streets.</div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 25.5px;">But if you want to get technical, the original goal has yet to be reached: Patrick taught Grand how to code and, though successful, the man is still sleeping on park benches and on flimsy cardboard boxes. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 25.5px;">Patrick McConlogue, for all intents and purposes, did not "solve homelessness."</span><br />
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The result seems to echo the statements made by the project's biggest critics — not everyone wants to be saved. Fixing homelessness is <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">a lot</em>more complicated than everyone thinks. </div>
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For everyone who has declined a homeless person a dollar or two because they should just "get a job" — it's not that simple. Does it mean you should empty your pockets on every corner? Of course not. But empathy comes free. And in the case of Leo Grand and Patrick McConlogue, teaching a man to fish won't feed him for life, unless the man is willing to pick up the forkim<br />
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"Is it difficult? Yes. Do I want it to be different? Yes. Am I walking away? No. We're still a team. He's a friend now," McConlogue said. </blockquote>
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And Grand, who holds McConlogue in the same regard, says he's happy.</div>
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News The Homeless Coder

A few weeks after the launch, he had made about $10,000. But as at last update, Leo the Homeless Coder is still homeless. He has yet ...

Save Planet Earth - You too can help

08:39:00 Kylo Ren 0

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Let's be Eco-Friendly and we can reduce Global Warming.</div>
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You CAN Help!</h3>
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The problem seems so big, it may be hard for you to imagine that anything you do can really help at all. But it will. Here are some changes you can make in your life to help prevent global warming:</div>
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<li>Plant trees</li>
<li>Start a seed bank (keep the seeds of many varieties of plants stored away safely)</li>
<li>Switch every light in your house to an energy-saving bulb</li>
<li>Reduce, reuse, recycle</li>
<li>Wear a sweater instead of turning up the heat in your house</li>
<li>Wear lighter clothing when it’s hot instead of turning on a fan</li>
<li>Turn lights, computers and all your chargers off and unplug them when they’re not in use</li>
<li>Only do full loads of laundry</li>
<li>Take shorter showers</li>
<li>Skip the car ride and use your bike, or walk or take the bus</li>
<li>Don’t buy bottled water; drink tap water, and filter it if you like</li>
<li>Eat lower on the food chain (less meat) and eat fewer processed foods</li>
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Knowledge is power. Change can only happen if all of us read about, listen to and discuss what’s happening in the world today</div>
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News Science Save Planet Earth - You too can help

Let's be Eco-Friendly and we can reduce Global Warming. You CAN Help! The problem seems so big, it may be hard for you to i...

Microsoft has made Windows 10 a 'recommended update'.

15:38:00 Kylo Ren 3

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Microsoft is building up its push to get Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users to upgrade to Windows 10.<br />
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If you haven't already downloaded Windows 10, your computer may do it for you automatically as soon as this week.<br />
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Microsoft has made Windows 10 a "recommended update," for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users, the company confirmed today.<br />
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"The new experience has begun to roll out in a phased approach to more Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 customers, although we do not have any information to share at this time with respect to individual regions."<br />
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Previously, the newest version of the Windows operating system was an "optional" update.<br />
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Recommended updates are typically downloaded and installed automatically if automatic updates are enabled. Because such updates are often security patches and fixes, they are enabled by default. Microsoft strongly recommends allowing automatic updates.<br />
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In the case of Windows 10, users will be "clearly prompted to choose whether or not to continue," before the process completely changes the operating system of their device, Microsoft assured users in a blog post in October. That was when the company first announced that Windows 10 would become a recommended update in the new year to make it easier to upgrade.<br />
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If you're not ready to upgrade, you might want to read any box that pops up on your screen extra carefully before hitting "yes."<br />
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If you decide you don't really want Windows 10 after it's already been installed, you will still be able to roll your device back to your previous operating system for the first 31 days after the upgrade, Microsoft says.<br />
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In its October blog post, the company said users worried about exceeding their internet provider's download limits could turn off automatic updates, but the company "strongly discouraged" that for security reasons.<br />
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Free until July 2016</h3>
Microsoft made Windows 10 available as a free upgrade to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users in July 2015. It will continue to be free for those users until next July 2016.<br />
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The company aims to have Windows 10 installed on a billion devices within the next three years, Myerson said at the company's annual Build conference in San Francisco in April.<br />
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As of Jan. 4, Microsoft said Windows 10 was active on over 200 million devices. In January, Windows 10 was installed on 13.7 per cent of PCs connecting to the internet – putting it ahead of Windows 8.1's 11.7 per cent, but still far behind Windows 7's 46.7 per cent worldwide, reported the web analytics firm StatCounter Monday. The company logs the operating system of devices that visit more than three million websites that have its free visitor-counting app installed.

News Windows Microsoft has made Windows 10 a 'recommended update'.

Microsoft is building up its push to get Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users to upgrade to Windows 10. If you haven't already downloa...

Speed force! - Google sets its sights on 5G connectivity

08:14:00 Kylo Ren 0

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Forget 4G, Google is already setting its sights on 5G in a secretive project to deliver wireless Internet from drones.<br />
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There are reports that the tech behemoth has been covertly testing prototype solar-powered aircraft designed to "deliver high-speed internet from the air."<br />
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Dubbed Project SkyBender, the project reportedly utilizes high-frequency millimeter wave technology, which is said to transmit gigabits of data per second at speeds that dwarf current 4G technology.<br />
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SkyBender is based out of Spaceport America, the same New Mexico facility built to support Virgin Galactic's spaceflight initiative.<br />
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While Google has yet to publicly acknowledge its involvement in the project, SkyBender is said to be a product of Google Access, the team responsible for Google's Project Loon. A partnership with the Sri Lankan government, Project Loon will provide wireless Internet access across remote areas of Sri Lanka via a network of balloons in the stratosphere.<br />
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Meanwhile, down here in Nigeria we are still struggling to get stable 3G connectivity in major cities and waiting for a promise of 4G.<br />
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News Tech News Speed force! - Google sets its sights on 5G connectivity

Forget 4G, Google is already setting its sights on 5G in a secretive project to deliver wireless Internet from drones. There are report...

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Frederick Damasus's Blog

Stairway to Tax Heaven - The Game

The Homeless Coder

Save Planet Earth - You too can help

Microsoft has made Windows 10 a 'recommended update'.

Speed force! - Google sets its sights on 5G connectivity

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