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Read a book sometime! The GOOD book!

This one ?
https://www.amazon.com/Good-Bo...

My plan is to submit my low(wish) numbered Slashdot userID as combo proof of existence/nerdidity.

Not to mention a snap of the cover from Hacking the Xbox" as proof of general intent. By the way that is a really interesting book to read on the topic of electronics analysis even if you do not want to hack an Xbox.

Yes. You can get a WD external portable 3TB drive for $125-$130 on Amazon right now

Can't login, sorry. For last Christmas I got 2 friends a "HooToo TripMate Nano" router/media sharing device. It has a USB interface, so I also picked up 2 64GB fingernail-sized FOBs. (You know the ones I mean -- the silver USB interface plug is 90% of the actual device.)

Hook the Nano up to a standalone phone battery or the car and let the kids stream their own media from the FOB to their phones during a trip. It'll handle 5 concurrent users, all solid state (just don't step on it), fits in your pocket, all that goodness. Forces a slightly dinky file browsing interface on their phone but not that bad. Setup's not quite intuitive, RTFM instead.

Oh, did I mention the Nano's $15, the 64GB is $10. I don't have stock in WD or HooToo -- but I've bought so many WD drives I ought to have.

This DOESN'T do sync, backups transcoding, etc, but if you've got setup time (and kids) the size and price is right.

I use a set of these with my Nexus when working out, they work great.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/pr...

Oh, well, good thing I have an idea how to avoid huge ships...

It has 4G if storage just like the paperwhite.
It does NOT have a screen light so it's not just like a paperwhite at all.

https://www.amazon.com/All-New...

I just converted my home stereo system from entirely analog, with piles of RCA cables running everywhere, to HDMI/TOSLink. I thought it was going to be very hard to get everything together; but it was quite the opposite. I replaced a gallon-ziploc bag STUFFED full of RCA cables with about 5 HDMI cables and a couple of TOSLink cables. Took a couple of hours to do the switchover, and everything just worked. So it IS possible to move forward without having to rewrite the entire U.S. Constitution... I swore it would be 50 years before the last RCA jack disappeared from audio/video gear; but now I'm not so sure. More like 10-15 years at MOST. Time marches on... You can either march too, or get trampled. That's just the way it is with everything, and even more so with electronics.

I'm curious how you could do that?

The only devices I have with HDMI are the Bluray player and the TV.

The XBOX 360 has an optical audio out.

But all the other equipment is RCA only, both for video and audio. I'm talking about the Wii, a turntable, a tapedeck, a CD player, the small 3.5mm to RCA lead we use to plug phone/tablets/mp3 players in the receiver (no pairing, no lost connection, no authentication problem... Instant plug and play).

Where can you find a turntable with a TOSLINK out? Or a tapedeck with TOSLINK in/out?

Well, every setup is of course, different. My TV has HDMI (obviously).

My DVD player has HDMI (and RCAs and TOSLink).

I took my VCR out of the system because it had a bad power supply, and because I hadn't used it in about 5 years.

My cable box has HDMI (and RCA (and TOSLink I think)).

I purchased a 4-port HDMI switch box to replace the 3 port RCA switch box I was using to consolidate ports. (I had also been using my VCR to do some signal-routing; but I had long-ago bypassed (literally) that.

The computer I use (an old G5 Tower) as an iTunes server has TOSLink out, so that goes over to one of the Optical inputs on the A/V Receiver.

The HDMI switch does audio extraction from HDMI to TOSLink, so I run TOSLink from the switch over to another Optical Input on the A/V Receiver.

As for your tape deck, unfortunately, most modern receivers don't have a "Tape Loop" anymore (mine does, both analog and TOSLink). But you can get from RCA To/From TOSLink for less than $20 per device-to-convert with things like these, and once it is all TOSLink, there are any number of Switches, or if you have a "modern" receiver, it will likely have enough TOSLink inputs to obviate the need for an external TOSLink switch box.

DId I forget anything? Oh yes, Turntable. Well, my Thorens TD160 has been sitting in quiet repose in my "storage room" for over 20 years; but my Receiver also still has a forest of RCAs (and I believe a Mag-Phono input), in case I ever want to hook it up again. Or, I could just get one of these thingies. I am sure there are less-expensive ones; but that is what I found in 0.5 secs of Googling for "Magnetic Phono to TOSLink".

As I said, every setup is different, and presents different challenges. The more "legacy" media (tape and vinyl) you want to support, the more "shopping" you need to do; but it is still possible in any event.

I just converted my home stereo system from entirely analog, with piles of RCA cables running everywhere, to HDMI/TOSLink. I thought it was going to be very hard to get everything together; but it was quite the opposite. I replaced a gallon-ziploc bag STUFFED full of RCA cables with about 5 HDMI cables and a couple of TOSLink cables. Took a couple of hours to do the switchover, and everything just worked. So it IS possible to move forward without having to rewrite the entire U.S. Constitution... I swore it would be 50 years before the last RCA jack disappeared from audio/video gear; but now I'm not so sure. More like 10-15 years at MOST. Time marches on... You can either march too, or get trampled. That's just the way it is with everything, and even more so with electronics.

I'm curious how you could do that?

The only devices I have with HDMI are the Bluray player and the TV.

The XBOX 360 has an optical audio out.

But all the other equipment is RCA only, both for video and audio. I'm talking about the Wii, a turntable, a tapedeck, a CD player, the small 3.5mm to RCA lead we use to plug phone/tablets/mp3 players in the receiver (no pairing, no lost connection, no authentication problem... Instant plug and play).

Where can you find a turntable with a TOSLINK out? Or a tapedeck with TOSLINK in/out?

Well, every setup is of course, different. My TV has HDMI (obviously).

My DVD player has HDMI (and RCAs and TOSLink).

I took my VCR out of the system because it had a bad power supply, and because I hadn't used it in about 5 years.

My cable box has HDMI (and RCA (and TOSLink I think)).

I purchased a 4-port HDMI switch box to replace the 3 port RCA switch box I was using to consolidate ports. (I had also been using my VCR to do some signal-routing; but I had long-ago bypassed (literally) that.

The computer I use (an old G5 Tower) as an iTunes server has TOSLink out, so that goes over to one of the Optical inputs on the A/V Receiver.

The HDMI switch does audio extraction from HDMI to TOSLink, so I run TOSLink from the switch over to another Optical Input on the A/V Receiver.

As for your tape deck, unfortunately, most modern receivers don't have a "Tape Loop" anymore (mine does, both analog and TOSLink). But you can get from RCA To/From TOSLink for less than $20 per device-to-convert with things like these, and once it is all TOSLink, there are any number of Switches, or if you have a "modern" receiver, it will likely have enough TOSLink inputs to obviate the need for an external TOSLink switch box.

DId I forget anything? Oh yes, Turntable. Well, my Thorens TD160 has been sitting in quiet repose in my "storage room" for over 20 years; but my Receiver also still has a forest of RCAs (and I believe a Mag-Phono input), in case I ever want to hook it up again. Or, I could just get one of these thingies. I am sure there are less-expensive ones; but that is what I found in 0.5 secs of Googling for "Magnetic Phono to TOSLink".

As I said, every setup is different, and presents different challenges. The more "legacy" media (tape and vinyl) you want to support, the more "shopping" you need to do; but it is still possible in any event.

I just converted my home stereo system from entirely analog, with piles of RCA cables running everywhere, to HDMI/TOSLink. I thought it was going to be very hard to get everything together; but it was quite the opposite. I replaced a gallon-ziploc bag STUFFED full of RCA cables with about 5 HDMI cables and a couple of TOSLink cables. Took a couple of hours to do the switchover, and everything just worked. So it IS possible to move forward without having to rewrite the entire U.S. Constitution... I swore it would be 50 years before the last RCA jack disappeared from audio/video gear; but now I'm not so sure. More like 10-15 years at MOST. Time marches on... You can either march too, or get trampled. That's just the way it is with everything, and even more so with electronics.

I'm curious how you could do that?

The only devices I have with HDMI are the Bluray player and the TV.

The XBOX 360 has an optical audio out.

But all the other equipment is RCA only, both for video and audio. I'm talking about the Wii, a turntable, a tapedeck, a CD player, the small 3.5mm to RCA lead we use to plug phone/tablets/mp3 players in the receiver (no pairing, no lost connection, no authentication problem... Instant plug and play).

Where can you find a turntable with a TOSLINK out? Or a tapedeck with TOSLINK in/out?

Well, every setup is of course, different. My TV has HDMI (obviously).

My DVD player has HDMI (and RCAs and TOSLink).

I took my VCR out of the system because it had a bad power supply, and because I hadn't used it in about 5 years.

My cable box has HDMI (and RCA (and TOSLink I think)).

I purchased a 4-port HDMI switch box to replace the 3 port RCA switch box I was using to consolidate ports. (I had also been using my VCR to do some signal-routing; but I had long-ago bypassed (literally) that.

The computer I use (an old G5 Tower) as an iTunes server has TOSLink out, so that goes over to one of the Optical inputs on the A/V Receiver.

The HDMI switch does audio extraction from HDMI to TOSLink, so I run TOSLink from the switch over to another Optical Input on the A/V Receiver.

As for your tape deck, unfortunately, most modern receivers don't have a "Tape Loop" anymore (mine does, both analog and TOSLink). But you can get from RCA To/From TOSLink for less than $20 per device-to-convert with things like these, and once it is all TOSLink, there are any number of Switches, or if you have a "modern" receiver, it will likely have enough TOSLink inputs to obviate the need for an external TOSLink switch box.

DId I forget anything? Oh yes, Turntable. Well, my Thorens TD160 has been sitting in quiet repose in my "storage room" for over 20 years; but my Receiver also still has a forest of RCAs (and I believe a Mag-Phono input), in case I ever want to hook it up again. Or, I could just get one of these thingies. I am sure there are less-expensive ones; but that is what I found in 0.5 secs of Googling for "Magnetic Phono to TOSLink".

As I said, every setup is different, and presents different challenges. The more "legacy" media (tape and vinyl) you want to support, the more "shopping" you need to do; but it is still possible in any event.

That is the beauty of the one time pad. you can never be sure that you have recovered the correct message. At best you recover all possible plain texts (provided it is a message smaller than the 140 character limit of a tweet). For things like block ciphers (symmetric or asymmetric key) it is easy because you are usually after the key so if all blocks decrypt to something non gibberish it is highly likely that you have the correct key or key that also works. This assumes that a Message Authentication Code (MAC) wasn't also used, if one was then it becomes easy to verify that you have successfully decrypted the message.

To use your example, which is not too dissimilar to what VeraCrypt (and previously TrueCrypt) did. When someone is attempting to break a cipher they will focus on just one of them at a time and figure out how to break just that one. Once they have broken each one separately then they go and just try them in all combinations until they find one that works produces non gibberish output. If you roll your own crypto, and it isn't a one time pad with a proper true random source, you will likely screw it up and it will fall to simple stasticial analysis. Even things like wheel ciphers and reuse of a one time pad can quickly be broken through some neat little tricks where you try to find the length of the block used to encrypt.

If you are interested in some of these things a good place to start might be by reading Applied Cryptography by Bruch Schneier (if you don't want to buy the book you can easily find a PDF version online but I do suggest supporting Bruce as he seems to be a big advocate of freedom and does do a lot of good work). For a simple introduction to modern cryptanalysis you can check this guy's page out. for a more detailed explanation of linear and differential cryptanalysis you can read this paper. Those should provide a good starting point if one wants to learn about making and breaking crypto.

Get a Bluetooth car adapter. I use a one from Kinivo that Amazon sells for $35.

This one is a pretty big leap. Most people who buy headphones I want them compatible with everything. I have some devices I plug into that are 10 years old and will still be used long into the future, and this means an audio cable. While I have an audio cable anyway, why would I want to pay a premium for in-headset bluetooth and at the cost of having to charge them all the time. When flash drives came out, USB was already prevelent and that was fine. I haven't looked for a thunderbolt hub for quite awhile but last I checked they were still a lot harder to find than usb hubs. Finally, I swear at apple every time I have to find my displayport adapter. I still have three working VGA monitors and the macbook is so far the only PC I have without a VGA or HDMI port.

As I said: Depends on how they handle it.

Like everyone else, I have several headphone/earbud sets that have either 3.5mm or 1/4" plugs on them. I would imagine that Apple will go wireless on the next iPhone, with Bluetooth 5 being used (with possible failover to older BT standards). I would NOT expect them to simply switch to using the Lightning connector and keeping the headphone/earbud user TETHERED to the device. What's the sense in that?

If that (Bluetooth) happens, Apple and a zillion other companies will rush to market with receiver/DAC dongles that you can plug analog 'phones into, and Apple and a zillion other companies will start (continue) making BT headphones/earbuds, and as time goes on, the 3.5mm jack will start being the thing you have to have an adapter for, for everything; rather than the other way around.

I just converted my home stereo system from entirely analog, with piles of RCA cables running everywhere, to HDMI/TOSLink. I thought it was going to be very hard to get everything together; but it was quite the opposite. I replaced a gallon-ziploc bag STUFFED full of RCA cables with about 5 HDMI cables and a couple of TOSLink cables. Took a couple of hours to do the switchover, and everything just worked. So it IS possible to move forward without having to rewrite the entire U.S. Constitution... I swore it would be 50 years before the last RCA jack disappeared from audio/video gear; but now I'm not so sure. More like 10-15 years at MOST. Time marches on... You can either march too, or get trampled. That's just the way it is with everything, and even more so with electronics.

As far as your Thunderbolt/DisplayPort issues go, that has more to do with when you bought your last PC and monitors than anything else, and with things like the Surface Pro and others switching to either MiniDisplayPort/Thunderbolt or USB-C, the days of the VGA connector are pretty much OVER. Even Slashdot has admitted it. But don't get me wrong, I have multiple things that are VGA, and so, having something like MiniDisplayPort actually allows me to have VGA compatibility for FAR longer than if I had to depend on a built-in VGA Port or some hinky, expensive, half-assed "converter box". (Been there, done that with HDMI -> Component Video. $70 for something that barely worked, and then failed after about a year)...

I personally like having the TB/MiniDisplayPort connector and Dongle setup; because 1) VGA (and DVI) Connectors, like the Universe itself, are BIG, REALLY BIG; 2) With just a little planning, I can output to a variety of Displays, without having to worry about having a particular Port available on the computer itself (and with an aftermarket TB display adapter, I don't even have to have 3 separate dongles; instead I can have ONE dongle that costs about HALF that Apple's dongles and has VGA, DVI and HDMI on the same dongle, how cool is that?); and 3) There is a modicum of protection afforded by having an active "dongle" b

Oh, and if you don't happen to have a car stereo with a line in because it's so old, here you go: https://www.amazon.com/Audio-C...

I'm sure if you can afford the $700 iPhone, you should have no problem paying for the $25 new adpater, or find one for $3 on ebay.

Here you go: https://www.amazon.com/GOgroov...

Maybe my next car purchase in 10-12 years I'll remember to include BT for the stereo system...

It's a cheap and decidedly worthwhile upgrade to existing tech / cars. I stuck a Grom unit behind the stock radio in my '04 E46M3, and in my 21-year-old 1995 Jeep Wrangler I simply swapped in a sub-$100 new head unit (Clarion but there are so many options). Much better solution than wrestling with a 1/8" cord constantly, especially with the wear and tear those cords get in an automotive environment (jiggle it just right to get audio out of both channels...).

And how exactly does it work if I do not have a cellphone?

Google recommends these security tokens in the US as an alternative.

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6103523?hl=en
https://www.amazon.com/s/?field-keywords=%22FIDO%20U2F%20Security%20Key%22

Alternatively a usb token like this $6 one I use would provide a secure second factor.

No, it assumes that the growth related to not paying the dividend is, on average, equal to the dividend, which it is.

[Citation needed]

there are a lot of irrational investors, and you are evidently one of them.

See also: ad hominem.

This is the book I base my strategy on. Its author is Benjamin Graham, the mentor of the better known Warren Buffett. If you think my implementation is wrong I'm interested in what you have to say (with references to the points made this or some other authoritative source, of course). At the moment from you have offered nothing to back up your claims and have no more credibility than any other random person on the internet. Claiming the strategy is irrational is simply silly given that I can look up the results of Graham's various direct proteges.

So it is fine for open source software to have known and understood bugs

Open source programmers should all read this book, and when a project doesn't fix bugs, it's time for a fork.

AWS is HIPPA-compliant, which is why the company in TFA is able to use them at all.

Small correction: HIPAA, not HIPPA.

HIPPA is HR law.
HIPAA is medical privacy law.

[citation needed]

Because Amazon themselves says that Companies use AWS for health care data, and this is HIPAA compliant.

AWS is HIPPA compliant:

A large and growing number of healthcare providers, payers and IT professionals are using AWS's utility-based cloud services to process, store, and transmit PHI. AWS enables covered entities and their business associates subject to the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to leverage the secure AWS environment to process, maintain, and store protected health information.

It is very common now for medical data to be stored with either AWS or Google. That trend is only going to acceleration. If you don't like it, well... best you plan to never get sick. Or old...

AWS is HIPPA-compliant, which is why the company in TFA is able to use them at all.

Your data is no less secure at AWS, than in any Internet-connected hospital — though that in itself is not saying much.

If you can not store it yourself, trusting a company like CareMonkey, whose entire business model is predicated on the security of customers' data, probably, makes more sense, than trusting someone, for whom it is but a side-show. Such companies may still experience a problem — nothing is safe — but they are less likely to.

And if you worry about government, well, to the delight of Statists, our "democratically controlled" "strong government" already has access to your medical history. And will get more, when the "single-payer" system, so beloved by those same Statists, replaces the designed to fail — and failing — Obamacare.

If the gravity waves were travelling faster than the speed of light, we would not have detected them. We wouldn't be here to detect them because gravity waves propagating through spacetime faster than the speed of light would mean that the universe doesn't work and that would be the end of everything. I suggest Misner, Thorne and Wheeler, an appropriately weighty tome, for more information on the nature of space time.

whenever I have trouble sleeping, this book, saved from my graduate school days always does the trick. Much better than counting sheep.

I would like to know this as well. When I was a teenager and first read Larry Niven's story "The Borderlands of Sol" (namely when it was republished in the collection Crashlander), where a gravity detector plays a role in the story, I assumed this was a real technology. After all, ways to detect electromagnetic waves or particle radiation had long been around. I thought nothing of it for a couple of decades, and then was surprised to read the news a while back of the "first ever detection of gravitational waves".

But that's not really what 'radicalism' means in this context, where it's a synonym for violent fundamentalism.

The fact that the Islamic religion is so violent in its texts and teachings (and please don't pretend this isn't the case) certainly is a factor in Islamic terrorism and its prevalence. If the Koran simply didn't have those awful verses, the world would be a materially better place.

I don't think it really makes sense to reason about 'radicalism' as in 'seeking rapid change'. That's not really the issue here.

My point, again, is simply that specific beliefs matter.

Relevant reading.

What is really cool is that sometimes you can find "stolen" content that is just not available anywhere else like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Amazon has it for sale

You can also rent it from Netflix. I know they still had all of the disks available a few months ago as I watched them sometime late last year. It wasn't as funny as I remember it being though.

Irrelevant. The answer to a really shit law is not to break it and hope you don't get caught.

In other words, kill yourself?

Seriously, the average professional in the United States commits three felonies a day. Rearranging one's life to commit zero crimes is impractical to impossible. If you're not committing crimes, you're dead.

Android had a version of it before Continuum was even a twinkle in Microsofts eye. It wasn't as full featured. But it was six years ago. Motorola Axtrix 2 had a dock you could plug in into called the HD station with an hdmi port and three usb ports. The Atrix 4g had dock that turned it into little laptop. https://www.amazon.com/AT-Lapt... And there is Maru OS, which lets you turn your Nexus 5 into a fully functioning Debian box.

Well....My 15.4" 4k display driven by a 960m seems to run games pretty well at 2k resolution. I could frankly do without the 4k display, as it makes most programs wig out and have giant or miniscule text, which makes it very unusable.

https://www.amazon.com/ZenBook...

It runs Witcher III without issue, and handles the games I enjoy playing without too much problem, but overheating has been an issue occasionally.

>32" is out of the main stream for computer monitors. If you search on Amazon, you get a bunch of oddball shit, about half of which is priced exorbitantly.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=n...

Which one of these "reasonably priced" models do you own? Whichever one, that wasn't exactly a savvy purchase. They are more expensive than a 2016 4K TV, and don't have any of the image enhancement features of modern TVs (upscaling, local dimming, etc) and aren't newer display technology like VA, OLED, IPS.

Only one of the 10+ models listed has a review, and only one review. Big sellers I guess.

There is one model that's listed at ~$1k, the rest are >$2k many of which are $5k+. The $1k model is a plain old TN LCD display (hello, 1997). The first listing if $2.2k and is also a plain old TN LCD.

a statistical fact that black males ages 14-17 are more than 10 times more likely to end up in prison for the same drug "crimes" than white teens committing the same offense. This is due to the *fact* that the color of their skin makes them more likely to get pulled over, then searched, then indicted, and then convicted.

Read this: https://www.amazon.com/New-Jim...

Thanks for this. I had grabbed this https://www.amazon.com/Bluetoo... and see that it is 4.0 but they have a Bluetooth 4.1 that supports apt-X Low Latency so I might give it another go with that.

Is this base gonna be more like Starfish or
preparation for Seveneves ?

Is this base gonna be more like Starfish or
preparation for Seveneves ?

Actually it seems we have regressed

What I don't understand is why more police aren't being shot in this nation. The police are trashing lives on a whim, and some of those trashed lives will have nothing to lose. I haven't had a polite interaction with a cop in 20 years, and most people say that the best policy is to avoid them at all costs. Parents are starting to teach their children not to call the police for help.

The militarization of the Police is a fascinating phenomenon. The Police are the "enforcement" conversely the politicians are the "management". Something which doesn't get nearly as much attention in these matters are the politicians who enact these policies. I'm not affiliated with this work, just something relevant to the topic, you may find it insightful: Rise of the Warrior Cop. It covers the origin of policing from the Roman praetorian guard to the present incarnation.

I found a book in the free bin at Powell's technical book store (back when it was a separate location) called _The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit_, by Sherry Turkle. One of the most interesting things she wrote about was children's relationship with new technology. When given a speak and spell, one of the first things kids tried to do was "break" it; to get it to stop saying things mid-sentence. She likened it to kids pulling the legs off of a bug: something sociopathic that kids do to things that are perceived as being "things" rather than "people". If they were unsuccessful at the task using software, they would go so far as to remove the batteries, just to show mastery over the device.

This book was written in 1984. Stop worrying about stupid shit your kids do, they know people are people and machines are machines probably better than we do. They'll grow out of this. Worry about them growing up to be convicted rapists and what you're going to tell the judge to sweet talk him out of sending your kid to big boy jail.

https://www.amazon.com/Second-...

Microsoft has published its own distribution of FreeBSD 10.3

I too have been building my own distribution of FreeBSD — since 1994. Unlike Linux folks, FreeBSD users are encouraged to build their own kernel and user-space. It is a trivial to do "out of the box" and allows to fine-tune CPU-optimization and add/remove support for various components.

There are plenty of FreeBSD images (such as here) to choose from in AWS' collection — with kernel (and the userspace) customized for Amazon's VMs. Makes all the sense for Azure to try to catch-up.

None of it warrants the claim of "Microsoft's own FreeBSD", however.

It's now about AI-voice type stuff, like Amazon Skills.

Instead of apps, we're now building skills, tasks, context aware software that usually has a voice or touch interface.

I thought they were talking about some sort of cutting edge tech. Nope. Just active hearing pro. The Australian army has used 3M Peletors for years - I don't think they are issued to individuals, but the Q-Stores hold them for use on ranges and they're included (2 pair) in the newer Carl Gustuv 84mm recoiless rifle trunks too.

Guys buy their own knock-offs from Amazon so that they don't have to use ear-plugs while doing fire and movement (as they're not usually handed out for this). I hate the plug style shown in the article - the last thing I want to do when living in the dirt is start shoving stuff in my ears. Ears, eyes and hands need to be treated well or you die, or are a burden to your team.

Get earplugs. These are comfortable, blend in so people don't notice you are wearing them, block some sound, but you can still hear conversations through them (and when the kids go to bed, you can take them out). I like my nephews but these earplugs save my sanity.

Well, it looks like I was drawn in by the heading of that last link, it is acutally a TB2 to PCIe dock, so would need a $100 adapter to connect to a laptop with USB-C.

http://www.amazon.com/Magma-Ex...

Overpriced Thunderbolt? You mean like the USB-C 3.1 ports that include Thunderbolt 3 and are coming in many of the current laptops now? You are behind the times already. There will soon be TB3 docking stations with PCIe graphics card slots, if there isn't already.

My gaming laptop has a USB-C/TB 3 port on it that I output to a dock that handles the dual monitor setup (2x 24" 1920x1200 monitors through HDMI and MiniDP) along with all my connector needs except power, as the laptop doesn't allow charging through USB-C

http://www.amazon.com/ZenBook-...
Plugged into
http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Doc...

A quick search turned up this:

http://www.amazon.com/Magma-Ex...

Which handles the TB3 - PCIe connections to allow an external video card setup, but still WAY too pricey, as I could buy a whole desktop PC for that price.

Overpriced Thunderbolt? You mean like the USB-C 3.1 ports that include Thunderbolt 3 and are coming in many of the current laptops now? You are behind the times already. There will soon be TB3 docking stations with PCIe graphics card slots, if there isn't already.

My gaming laptop has a USB-C/TB 3 port on it that I output to a dock that handles the dual monitor setup (2x 24" 1920x1200 monitors through HDMI and MiniDP) along with all my connector needs except power, as the laptop doesn't allow charging through USB-C

http://www.amazon.com/ZenBook-...
Plugged into
http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Doc...

A quick search turned up this:

http://www.amazon.com/Magma-Ex...

Which handles the TB3 - PCIe connections to allow an external video card setup, but still WAY too pricey, as I could buy a whole desktop PC for that price.

Overpriced Thunderbolt? You mean like the USB-C 3.1 ports that include Thunderbolt 3 and are coming in many of the current laptops now? You are behind the times already. There will soon be TB3 docking stations with PCIe graphics card slots, if there isn't already.

My gaming laptop has a USB-C/TB 3 port on it that I output to a dock that handles the dual monitor setup (2x 24" 1920x1200 monitors through HDMI and MiniDP) along with all my connector needs except power, as the laptop doesn't allow charging through USB-C

http://www.amazon.com/ZenBook-...
Plugged into
http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Doc...

A quick search turned up this:

http://www.amazon.com/Magma-Ex...

Which handles the TB3 - PCIe connections to allow an external video card setup, but still WAY too pricey, as I could buy a whole desktop PC for that price.

I got aTI-99/4A for my birthday when I was 8. I didn't know how to type yet, so my mom helped by typing in the examples from the Beginner's BASIC programming guide. Then I would edit them and figure out how to do stuff on my own. Eventually I was writing my own simple programs and trying to figure out how to make databases saved to cassette tapes.

A few years later, my dad bought an IBM PS/2 80 that came with a BASIC interpreter. A couple of years after that, I was in junior high school and had to take a programming class (taught in BASIC). I had been programming for several years at that point and was already well beyond what the class covered. This was still the 80s and the school didn't have a specialized computer teacher. Since computers had keyboards, they recruited the typing teacher for the class. Being a computer class, at some point Borland sent her a Pascal compiler. She knew I was way more into computers than anyone, so she gave it to me. I installed it at home and taught myself Pascal by writing programs in BASIC, then re-implementing it in Pascal.

When I got to college, I learned the "computer science" aspects (e.g. data structures and algorithms) of programming in C, then C++, and also learned things like COBOL, x86 assembly, and OpenGL. Along the way, I've also taught myself other languages as needed, like HTML, perl, php, SQL, etc.

I think the idea of making programming a requirement is pretty stupid. I have taught many programming classes myself and have observed the same thing as every other programming instructor I've ever met: there are a few people who pick it up instantly and advance far beyond the rest of the class in a very short time, a large number of people who are capable of doing it at a basic level, and a few people who just cannot get it at all. We should definitely have computer usage classes, especially for standard business applications, but what is far more important is how to think critically about information. We don't need any more anti-vaxxers or climate-change deniers.

One of the most important things that happened to me my entire life was the day in the early 80s someone gave me a copy of this book:

http://www.amazon.com/BASIC-Co...

http://www.amazon.com/Conagra-...