Ohio Firms can Pay their Taxes Using Bitcoin

Starting this week, businesses in Ohio will be able to pay their taxes using Bitcoin. Engadget reported that the service could eventually be expanded to accept payment of personal taxes. According to the Wall Street Journal: “Ohio businesses will be able to go to the website OhioCrypto.com and register to pay everything from cigarette sales taxes to employee withholding taxes with Bitcoin.”  Ohio is the first state to allow taxes to be paid via Bitcoin. The change was pushed forward by Ohio state Treasurer Josh Mandel.

This doesn’t eliminate the regulatory concerns around cryptocurrency, and it’s doubtful that more than a handful of businesses will use it. It’s happening in Ohio precisely because state Treasurer Josh Mandel says he can do it without requiring help from the legislature or the governor. It could be considerably more difficult to implement this by passing a bill.

UK Parliament Seizes Internal Facebook Documents

LONDON – The UK Parliament has exercised its legal powers and seized a number of internal Facebook documents. The cache of papers is alleged to contain revelations surrounding the data and privacy controls that resulted in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Furthermore, The Observer reported that, “they include confidential emails between senior executives, and correspondence with [Mark] Zuckerberg.” Damian Collins, Conservative MP and chair of the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, sent a parliamentary official to the London hotel where Ted Kramer, the founder of Six4Three, a software company that is suing Facebook, was staying. Mr. Kramer was eventually compelled to hand over the documents. Facebook has denied all the allegations made and demanded the return of the papers. The Observer has the full details:

The documents seized were obtained during a legal discovery process by Six4Three. It took action against the social media giant after investing $250,000 in an app. Six4Three alleges the cache shows Facebook was not only aware of the implications of its privacy policy, but actively exploited them, intentionally creating and effectively flagging up the loophole that Cambridge Analytica used to collect data. That raised the interest of Collins and his committee.

App Sale: The Ocmo Game is Currently Free

Ocmo is an award winning ninja rope platformer that challenges even hardcore gamers. Fluid movement, physics based gameplay and tight controls create unique sense of freedom and flow. Survive the 80 dangerous levels including secrets and boss fights. Set new records and share speedrunning videos. Swing with tentacles through the levels using momentum to your advantage. Eat rabbits and discover the world. You are the monster of the forest. Features: Lots of dying, ragdoll rabbits, physics-based eating, unique and precise controls, hard to master, well crafted and diverse level design, loads of depth, designed for speedrunning, online leaderboards, beautiful world with a small but dark story to discover, and more. App Store: Ocmo – Free (usually US$4.99)

The iPad is a Wonderful Accessibility Tool

The iPad is a wonderful accessibility tool, and one man with Down syndrome uses his iPad to keep up with his family more easily (via The Loop).

This guy, whose genetic abnormality was once thought to cap his learning ability at the kindergarten level, is becoming adept at computer/information age technology.

You folks made that possible. You paid the taxes that produce the classes and programs that give those of us who have special needs the needed special care.

While the idea of using an iPad as your only device enrages so-called “pundits”, people like Greg remind us that the iPad is the computer for everyone.

Corporations Aren't Aligned With Consumer Interests

No matter how many times Mark Zuckerberg or other CEOs say sorry, corporations will continue to screw us over until someone steps in.

The result is that even if their leaders earnestly wanted to impart meaningful change to provide restitution for their wrongs, their hands are tied by entrenched business models and the short-term focus of the quarterly earnings cycle. They apologize and go right back to problematic behavior.

It’s not just Facebook though, this is every company that puts money over users (so all of them?) Whether you like regulation or not, I think both sides can agree that nothing can be done without outside influence. Like I said in a previous link, criminals don’t voluntarily turn themselves in.

What if You Could Edit Laws Using GitHub?

Washington D.C. has made GitHub the central repository for its system of laws. It’s not a copy of the laws, it’s the actual source. And they can be edited.

Last week, I opened the file on GitHub that had the typo, edited the file, and submitted my edit using GitHub’s “pull request” feature. A pull request is a request to the file’s maintainer to review a change and then, if approved, pull it in to the main file.

This is really neat and I hope more states will follow this approach. It creates a different mindset around the law: One of collaboration and transparency, instead of separation and obfuscation.

Oco Motion HD Pan/Tilt Wireless Security Camera: $103.20

We have a deal on the Oco Motion HD Pan/Tilt Wireless Security Camera. This device i controllable from your iPhone or Android device. You can save video locally or to the cloud, and it has pan and tilt, a built-in microphone, and more. It’s $129 through our deal, but promo code BFSAVE20 at checkout brings it down to $103.20.