Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills • Hacker News Board

Re: Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills

#201

Post by ramraj07 » Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 2:11 PM UTC

dsomers wrote: post #82

crispyambulance wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was the mid 80's, well before 9-11. Airport security was far more lax. Everything was far more lax. There was no way to easily verify ID anyway.

Exactly this. As late as the 2001 I could cross into the US from Canada with as little as my birth certificate, which I often did. That was just a cotton blended paper with tattered edges with some writing, and the crest of my province printed on it. There wasn’t even a photo on it! It was closer to writing, ‘I’m daniel plz let me in’ on a napkin, than it is to my passport of today with its photo, barcode, and RFID c…

Sure, but no matter how far back in history you go this hasn’t applied to everyone. My dad had to jump through hoops to attend a conference in the states in the 90s. Including sitting in a line on the sidewalk in front of the US embassy for hours, as a well respected doctor in his 40s, curious what your thoughts are about that. Then I come to Canada in 2008 and hear people talk about all their trips to Europe and South America and they didn’t know what a visa meant. The world is a very unfair place, and first world people especially non-minorities never knew how bad it was for others. Perhaps post 2001 kind of leveled the Playing field in some ways.

Re: Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills

#202

Post by lotsofpulp » Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 2:13 PM UTC

csallen wrote: post #6

> I'd already transferred the maximum yearly tax free gift of $10,000 to each of my kids. If I'm not mistaken, one tip I've heard is that one can transfer more than that in gifts yearly, and although that requires filing a gift tax return with the IRS, it doesn't mean necessarily mean paying any tax. There's a lifetime maximum that has to be hit, and it's extremely high. (I'm not a lawyer nor an accountant, and this…

The nuance is that if you gift below the yearly reporting amount, it does not count towards the lifetime maximum, since it never has to be reported.

So if Woz had given $10,001, then he would have had to file it, and then when he died, it would have added $10,001 towards his total lifetime gift tax exclusion from his estate (currently $13M). But if he gave $10k (or whatever yearly reporting maximum) per year until he dies, then all of that does not get counted towards the $13M lifetime gift tax exclusion, so in a way, it is an additional tax reduction when the estate gets passed down.

Re: Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills

#203

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 2:13 PM UTC

OJFord wrote: post #113

dsomers wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly this. As late as the 2001 I could cross into the US from Canada with as little as my birth certificate, which I often did. That was just a cotton blended paper with tattered edges with some writing, and the crest of my province printed on it. There wasn’t even a photo on it! It was closer to writing, ‘I’m daniel plz let me in’ on a napkin, than it is to my passport of today with its photo, barcode, and RFID c…

As little as a birth certificate? You can still cross EU borders with just a driving licence, or government issued ID where they have them. (In practice the vast majority using planes and boats at least probably do take a passport, I always did from the UK, but in theory you don't need one, so if you weren't planning to go elsewhere you wouldn't even need to get a passport.)

[deleted]

Re: Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills

#204

Post by ramraj07 » Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 2:14 PM UTC

MrPatan wrote: post #53

ramraj07 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is using fake IDs to board airplanes a joke? Only because we are mostly sure this particular man is an innocent manchild, but how exactly does that generalize?

Do you have to show your papers when you board a bus?

Yes, you have to now, actually, in most greyhounds in most cities within 100 miles of the US border.

Re: Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills

#205

Post by manimino » Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 2:15 PM UTC

JuniorBalleg wrote: post #134

ramraj07 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention not looking like a minority was a fairly strong shield back then and even is today.

When an entire population is far more homogeneous than most modern Western states, the heightened social trust and cohesion permits this kind of harmless fun (among many other benefits). It's one of those sacrifices made to accommodate diversity which is almost impossible to quantify and existentially unsettling to even try.

People often refer to the Scandinavian countries or Japan as examples of low ethnic diversity and high trust.

Are there any quantitative studies on this topic? It would be a stronger argument if a clear trend was observable over many countries.

Re: Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills

#206

Post by ztrww » Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 2:15 PM UTC

sandworm101 wrote: post #174

b3orn wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It probably amounted to a real crime. I'm not a lawyer, I have no idea how criminal law in the USA works, but why would this be a crime? He didn't fake a Department of Defence ID, he created an ID for a fictional Department of Defiance, it may look similar, it may appear as a "real" ID because it's not just a piece of paper, but it's about as real an ID as a gym membership card.

Giving a false ID to law enfordement? That is a crime. Giving a forged ID to the secret service, the people in charge of detecting counterfeiting? That's just idiocy. Misspelling department of defense doesnt make the ID ok any more than printing a tiny lol in the corner of your fake dollar bills. (Also, falsely claiming a relationship with the military is downright dishonerable.)

> false ID

Showing a counterfeit driver’s license, passport etc. is obviously a crime. What he did was equivalent to showing your company issued ID. Would that be a crime?

Re: Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills

#207

Post by jrochkind1 » Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 2:15 PM UTC

dsomers wrote: post #82

crispyambulance wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was the mid 80's, well before 9-11. Airport security was far more lax. Everything was far more lax. There was no way to easily verify ID anyway.

Exactly this. As late as the 2001 I could cross into the US from Canada with as little as my birth certificate, which I often did. That was just a cotton blended paper with tattered edges with some writing, and the crest of my province printed on it. There wasn’t even a photo on it! It was closer to writing, ‘I’m daniel plz let me in’ on a napkin, than it is to my passport of today with its photo, barcode, and RFID c…

> As late as the 2001 I could cross into the US from Canada with as little as my birth certificate,

Growing up in Detroit in the 80s (which some people don't realize is right on the border with Canada -- and that you travel south across a bridge to get to Canada! look it up) -- we generally didn't even bring our birth certificate. which may be a testament to our social class -- they could ask for a birth certificate if they thought you seemed "suspicious" (which i'm sure is racially coded), but for 90%+ of crossings, and 100% of our crossings, it was a two question interview without showing any paperwork at all. "What is your citizenship? What is your purpose of travel? OK, go through." No showing of ID at all -- not even a driver's license!

[And again, they could ask for ID -- a driver's license or birth certificate -- if they wanted. I am positive at least 9 out of 10 crossings they did not. I am indeed sure that the race and class appearance (and accent) of the crosser was significant].

We used to patriotically brag (in the time of the cold war and berlin wall) that this was how borders between two stable "free" countries, the US and Canada, could be, "the longest open border in the world".

It makes me really sad to think about how much we have gotten used to living in a security state, that does not need to be that way.

Re: Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills

#208

Post by cloutchaser » Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 2:15 PM UTC

sandworm101 wrote: post #179

dereg wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t help but shake my head at most of these comments. There was a time when we celebrated anecdotes like this here on Hacker News. I’ve seen this story circulated many times but this is the first time I’ve seen this sort of reaction. These aren’t rose colored glasses, anyone can look up threads of old in which we cheered such defiance toward authority. People are frothing to frame this story with 2023 glasses and…

That was before we knew that real people suffer after pulling similar stunts. We all know of someone who did something stupid and has faced a lifetime of consiquence. Nobody dares put a fake bomb in a school locker (Woz did that) or give false documents to police for fun. Such things are no longer jokes. They screw up entire lives. I used to ride fast motorcycles. I know people who ran from the police for fun. Better…

You are right (sometimes), but so is the prankster for challenging authority sometimes.

A healthy society both has rule following and rule challenging. Sometimes there’s too much rule following, sometimes there’s too much chaos, and then things balance themselves out ideally.

If anyone says only one side is the right one, they are ideologically captured. It’s like saying only left or right is the right way to govern a country. It’s both and neither. We need this conflict within society to arrive at healthy decisions.

Get rid of one side at your peril.

Re: Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills

#209

Post by ramraj07 » Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 2:16 PM UTC

KyeRussell wrote: post #111

ramraj07 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is using fake IDs to board airplanes a joke? Only because we are mostly sure this particular man is an innocent manchild, but how exactly does that generalize?

You only think that it’s not a joke because over 20 years ago some people committed the single most successful act of terrorism in recent history. Was Woz meant to look into the future and be mindful of your presumably American sensitivities?

I’m Indian and india had fairly strict airline procedures even before 2001. Because flight terrorism has a longer history than 9/11. Im curious how you concluded I might be too America focused when you ignored all the countries that has had to battle terrorism for much longer.

Re: Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills

#210

Post by ipaddr » Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 2:16 PM UTC

sandworm101 wrote: post #179

dereg wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t help but shake my head at most of these comments. There was a time when we celebrated anecdotes like this here on Hacker News. I’ve seen this story circulated many times but this is the first time I’ve seen this sort of reaction. These aren’t rose colored glasses, anyone can look up threads of old in which we cheered such defiance toward authority. People are frothing to frame this story with 2023 glasses and…

That was before we knew that real people suffer after pulling similar stunts. We all know of someone who did something stupid and has faced a lifetime of consiquence. Nobody dares put a fake bomb in a school locker (Woz did that) or give false documents to police for fun. Such things are no longer jokes. They screw up entire lives. I used to ride fast motorcycles. I know people who ran from the police for fun. Better…

"Better camera tech in recent years means nobody gets away with that anymore."

Because police rely on technology committing a crime without your cellphone means you most likely will not get caught. We live in an age where wearing masks is acceptable. Where people let you steal from stores and where crime is ignored unless it's on twitter.

You can get away with so much more today.