davidw
About
- Username
- davidw
- Joined
- Visits
- 185
- Last Active
- Roles
- member
- Points
- 4,741
- Badges
- 1
- Posts
- 2,184
Reactions
-
CarPlay helps Australian police scan license plates automatically
lesterkrimbaugh said:
Police in the US have side facing cameras as well as front and rear cameras. The cameras are constantly scanning license plates and automatically alert police to any suspicious vehicle – even parked cars. We sometimes see them at the mall driving up and down the rows of parked cars.ApplePoor said:The UK police have had a camera on the front of their squad cars for years. When they come up behind you, they know immediately if the road tax has been paid, the MOT inspection is current and there is a valid insurance policy in force. They also know the gender of the mandatory listed drivers on the insurance policy. So if a girl friend is driving the boy friend's car and no females are on the policy, there will be a pull over for clarification. Another feature is if there is no insurance, they have the option to take the car to the crusher right then.
So big brother is watching every where.Here in San Francisco, meter person scooters had cameras on them for years. But back when they were first installed, the public was told that those license plate readers were to check for overtime parking violations. In SF (and I imagine in most cities) parking meters are usually placed in front of businesses. Those meters usually have a 20 minutes to 2 hours time limit. One is not allowed to keep feeding the meter all day long, without moving their vehicle. If the meter person suspects that a vehicle been there for longer than time limit of the meter, they would need to chalk mark the tires and then check for the mark after the time limit had passed again.But with the vehicle mounted cameras, the on board computer can inform the meter person that the same car been parked in the same spot, since the last time the meter person passed by. So even if there is still time on the meter the second time around, the meter person would know if a vehicle been parked there for over the time limit of the meter. So the vehicle will get a ticket for overtime parking, regardless if there's still time on the meter. It seems that in these metered business areas, the employees of the businesses would take up these metered spaces and keep feeding the meters all day long. Thus taking away parking spaces for those that are there to patronize the businesses.But of course today, those cameras are now tied to the police data base and vehicles with a high amount of unpaid tickets will get booted. While stolen vehicles or vehicles that the police might be searching for also get flagged and reported to the police.Right now, SF through a Federal grant, is in the process of installing 400 pole mounted license plate readers through out the city. (I believed Oakland (across the Bay) is doing the same.) But we're still a long way from being as efficient as London or Paris or Berlin or most other major cites in the EU, in tracking any car as it makes its way through the city. Here, we are still mainly depending on license plate readers instead of live video "traffic" cameras.When ever there is a terrorist attack in some major EU city, I'm still amazed at how the police is able to track the car used in the crime, back to the neighborhood where the criminals first boarded the vehicle and the path it took through the city to get to (or away from) the crime scene. Criminals there can't fool law enforcement by changing the plates half way to or from, the crime scene. The police there would know exactly where they stopped to change the plates.
-
Apple may be gearing up for first corporate bond sale since 2023
nubus said:
Apple must borrow in the US as profits are cash is kept offshore to avoid contributing to the US. It has caused a significant financial leverage and it makes borrowing more expensive for Apple. The alternative would be to pay taxes in the US.AppleInsider said:It is unclear exactly why Apple wants to sell bonds and raise cash, especially since its Q2 2025 results revealed it had $28 billion in "cash and cash equivalents," along with other assets.
You are so ill informed. All profits made in the US is taxed in the US. They can not be legally moved off shore to avoid US taxes. IRS would not allow that. For Apple, the US is one of their most profitable market.What profits don't get taxed (in the US) are the profits made overseas. But only if those profits remains in overseas accounts. They are only taxed if they are brought into the US. But there is a tax credit for the taxes that were paid overseas, on those profits. When the US corporate tax rate was 35%, it was never a wise move for international companies to bring their overseas profit to spend in the US. This because the average overseas corporate tax is in the mid 20%. So overseas profits brought into the US would incur another 10% in US corporate taxes. But Trump in 2017, lowered the US corporate tax rate to 21%. So any oversea profits that were already taxed 25% in the foreign country it was made, can be brought into the US without incurring any more US corporate taxes. (State taxes is another matter.)In fact, many countries do not tax foreign profits at all, when they are brought back into their countries. The thinking being that it's better for their economy, if those foreign profits were spent in their country. And taxing them would discourage companies from spending foreign profits in their own country. But if you were the foreign country like France or Spain or Germany or the UK, etc., wouldn't you want those overseas profits that were made in your country, to be spent in your country? This is why international companies like Apple, park their overseas profits in overseas accounts. Why should they pay US corporate taxes on oversea profits that they might need to spend overseas? Opening a Apple Store in any foreign country is not cheap and any foreign country would want Apple to open an Apple Store in their country.The US taxing foreign corporate profits goes back to the days when there were only few international companies. The US felt that those US international companies would have an unfair advantage, if they were to use foreign profits that were taxed at a much lower than the 35% US corporate tax rate, to compete with US companies that do not have any foreign profits. Thus all profits spent in the US, must be taxed at the US corporate tax rate (with credit give for any foreign taxes paid on those profits), to level the playing field in the US. Of course, now of days, with the internet, it's relatively easy for any companies to have a foreign presence. A developer with an app in the Apple App Store, is an "international company". At one time, before 2017, the US had the highest corporate tax rate at 35%.You are making it sound like Apple is avoiding US taxes by moving US profits overseas. Thus the only reason why they need to borrow money or issue bonds to acquire spending money. Borrowing money makes sense if its cheap enough. The cash Apple have on hand is earning interest that helps offset the cost of borrowing money or issuing bonds. I remember a time when Apple dividend amounted to about 2% of share price (before the 4:1 split in 2020) and interest rate on taking out a corporate loans was about 2%. Every share bought back saved Apple 2% from not having to pay the dividend. Thus it was a no-brainer to take out a loan to buyback shares and keeping their cash on-hand in interest bearing accounts.
