Recent email from eBay regarding tax: who are you to talk?

I won’t write too long because there are so many things I can say about tax. It will never end since I have my own strong opinions. However, let’s start with this. Tax is a necessary evil and it is our job to pay it as a resident. How to use tax money is completely different manner, so I won’t even bother to mention it.

Here’s my little complain to eBay. Sure, when I sell through eBay, I dont’ have to collect tax from the buyer, however, you tax me twice as a fee from eBay itself and PayPal that you own under the name of fee. You tax me as heavy as our government does. At least our government provides me roads, education, safety, and etc. What do you offer me eBay? I do not feel the government is trying to bully me by asking me to pay the tax I supposed to pay regardless. I feel cheated when the amount of tax i have to pay is more than a guy in Texas have to pay on his purchase. As eBay mentioned there are 9,600 tax jurisdictions. It gets too complicated for small business owner to figure it out and maintain all of it. If government can come up with some solution to ease the pain and time for small business to do it easily, that’d be the perfect solution. Not giving them a break for not have to pay tax.

Just like any businesses, any small business need to earn their business with superior service for better price. Not the same service yet a consumer can save money from not paying tax. eBay, instead of lobbying and whatever you are doing so online retailers won’t have to pay taxes, lower your fees and create better tools for sellers and buyers to know how to collect tax properly.

What’s the best tire for your 8th-gen Civic Si?

First of all, I am not a tire expert. I wanted to share my experience of tires that I had.

Here are some brief info about my car and what I had.

  • I have 2009 Civic Si with 8,8000 miles on it
  • This is my 4th set of tires
  • I use stock size – 215/45/17
  • I went through Michelin MXM4 (lasted 30,000), Continental DWS (lasted 53,000), and Yokohama YK580 (hated so much that I demanded trade in full value minus exact usage), and got Kumho Ecsta 4X yesterday with roughly 100 miles.
  • Since I am living in Chicago, I encounter snow often

Michelin MXM4

Probably the worst tire ouf of four.It’s been a while since I had them so long ago, all I can remember is how terrible they were. They were not good at all other than dry condition. I thought I was driving a RWD car with these tires. I was glad to get them off of my car.

Continental DWS

I loved it in the beginning. It was grippy, quite, and gave me a good ride quality. However, the tires became noisy and losing grip as they wore out. The first 30,000 miles were fantastic. I don’t mind getting them again yet.

Yokohama YK580

This is a tire specifically made for Discount Tire. I wanted another set of Conti DWS but they were out of stock and backordered. Salesman/assistant manager of the store persistently persuaded me to purchase Yoko YK580. What a mistake! I should sticked to my gut and refused proprietary tires that makes a lot of profit for discount tire. I am surprised they get such great reviews on discount tire website. My experience was very sour. It was noisy like Conti DWS on its last lag. It performed very poorly in snow and rain. My gas mileage dropped. I fed up with the tire and went back to demand prorated refund for this. I will never purchase it in my life.

Kumho Ecsta 4x

I do not care people say this is a worse tire than Yoko YK580 or Conti DWS. My experience of past 100 miles or so has been much better than any other three tires I owned. It is  the quietest of all. Grip is so great that my turns much better and stopps much quicker. Ride is so smooth that I cannot believe how much a set of tires can make difference.Of course I have a long way to go to test out this tire but as of right now this is the best by a huge margin.

I hope this review helps people who cross shop these four different types of tires.

As we all know Copyright Law is very outdated

According to Digital Music News’ article, the head of the US Copyright Office will request the law overhauled. Source : Digital Music News

Here are few grips I have with current copyright law

  1. It is way too complicated, any law that requires lawyers to understand and only enrich lawyer’s wealth oppose to right’s holder is a non-sens. Laws are guideline. It should be simple and easy to understand. If you speed over the speed limit, you get a ticket and fined. If you j-walk, you get a ticket. Copyright violation? Kids don’t understand the law and they get slapped with millions of dollar. Lawyers get huge chunk of the money and record company gets another huge chunk yet actual song writers get none.
  2. It is outdated it will always be. All copyright law does is catching up. By the new law is set in next few years, the industry will be shifted dramatically thus the law will be outdated. Congress is filled with aged people. They are not fast enough to catch up what is going on with technology.
  3. LENGTH! 70 years after after the author’s death is what current copyright law stands. It is way too long. Nothing will be in public domain until I die. Perhaps, my grand children might see some of current copyrighted works will be on public domain close to their death.

In my opinion, congress should overhaul IP laws period. Patent system is in a complete mess as well. In the current status lawyers are the only group of people who sees much gain out of this whacky system.

Green Chicago River – Saint Patrick’s Day

First time in my 14 years of Chicago life, I finally had a chance to witness green chicago river in day time. Every year during the saint patrick’s day, City of Chicago dyes Chicago River to green (http://greenchicagoriver.com) It was so cold yet managed to snap few picture. Chicago is so beautiful and this is definitely my favorite city of all in US!

Downtown Chicago from Museum Campus
Bean in Millenium Park
Green River 1
Color Accent Green River
Different Angle
Another Color Accents