Under $100k in my area (suburban Washington DC), is barely a living wage.
It's amazing how weak people get once they get paid a good salary for any length of time. Why don't you try going to a park and finding a homeless guy that sleeps on a bench and tell him how you can barely live with less than $100k a year.
You are either exaggerating, or you have no concept of what is really needed to live and what things are luxuries.
I wouldn't say it's either of those things: For most of western society, people live up to their means. This means that the poster probably has a reasonably nice home or a very convenient apartment/condo near his place of employment. Toys (some paid for, some with a lien) broadband, "eating well" (however you define that, it often costs much more than eating basic), etc all add up.
That said, DC is an awfully expensive place to be, even if you're trying to be frugal.
It is more than $43k, but less than $50k. IT for two locations, the telephony guy, AV guy for both places, software development for web and windows (python and c#/vb.net), occasionally little bits of electronics work, dev for one android app, and I'm the help desk for our employees (the on call part). I also occasionally change light bulbs, fix simple plumbing issues, and run a vacuum cleaner when necessary. I work for a small business... that's just how it goes.
So no, I am definitely not a Google caliber developer. And I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining... I know those guys are brilliant and deserve every penny. I just had a knee-jerk reaction to the previous post's suggestion that $128k isn't a lot of money. To me it would be like winning the lotto.
I have a similar job description (PHP, Perl and C#) for only marginally more cash. While I have sympathy, it's nice to know I'm not the only guy who's in the same situation. And yes, you're exactly right: That's just how it goes in small businesses.
I've seen two instances where a drive failed. Each time there were no handy replacement drives. Within a week a second drive died the same way as the first! back to backup tapes! Better to have replacement drives in boxes waiting.
This. Your spares closet is your best friend in the enterprise. Ensure you keep it stocked.
This means people spend a whole years of their salary on a car just to get to work! It is even worse in the south where people buy $46,000 trucks and SUVs yet make only $13 an hour and wonder why they live paycheck to paycheck??
You seem to think that people in the south are the ones buying the majority of SUVs and Trucks for some reason? Are you insinuating that the southerners are stupider with their money than Northerners for some reason?
Funny...from what I've observed, living beyond your means....runs rampant throughout the whole USA...
And in my travels, I've seen no shortage of SUVs and pickup trucks anywhere in the US....so, not sure why you're trying to single out the southern part of the US.
It's hip to stereotype people living in the deep south IS. Didn't you get the memo?
"Good maintenance" is often a bit of a misnomer for many craigslist vehicles. Most of them are basically clapped out bleeders that would take double the asking price to not stain the parking spot you decide to use.
Plus, let's be honest, how many will wrench on their own cars, or know a mechanic that will actually risk taking used parts? I know of exactly one, and he's just for hire when he's hard up for cash.
See, congress knows who pays their bills, so to speak.
What it also knows is that it can count on people like you to propagate cynicism and defeatism, so that nothing ever changes.
The implication is that cynicism and defeatism hasn't proven justified. I think that many people see the entire US Fed as a fairly broken system until there's a paradigm shift on (at least) the hill. This is most likely due to the ineptness of anyone to actually describe anything happening up there without seemingly miles of legalese qualifiers. Bills that have massive impacts on citizens get passed without even a glance by the reps up there. Ask your local rep if they read every word of every piece of legislation that they vote on. I'm willing to bet they'll say "Of course I do!", lying through their teeth. Mine does the same thing.
I have proposed that no legislation can be brought to the floor unless it's under 200 pages in the standard format that they use up there. At least then everyone would be able to read it in a reasonable amount of time. I haven't made much traction with this proposal tho.
I've noticed this as well - my boss usually puts some Pandora station on the office sound system. It tends to play a very limited selection - we'll often hear the same song several times a day.
I don't use them mainly because I already have a 30GB collection of carefully organized music, mostly video game soundtracks that don't exactly show up on Pandora anyways, much less organized by originating console with playlists for similar in-game context.
That's not to say that they DON'T have video game music. I get several tracks from Final Fantasy, Halo, and a few others on my "Final Fantasy" station.
So the the best example of something wholly made 'made in America' is a weapon.
Well done.
Is a bow. A bow can be used as a weapon, certainly; So can your car.
Words mean something. Most bows these days are used for sport or hunting. I don't recall a single news story where a bow was used as a weapon. More often knives (which you have in your kitchen, yes?) and firearms.
Thus the "GM quality" statement.... And unfortunately it wasn't just GM... I don't know of a well built car from the big 3 from basically the late 70s to the early 90s. Some would say mid 2000 is when they finally turned the corner, but there were hints of it before.
Well, dropping a subframe is no big deal, but I wouldn't want to have to do it a lot. I had it off my 240SX a couple times for differential swaps and I've half-dropped it on my 300SD to replace the rear springs.
The big v8 that you're referring to doesn't have any motor mounts up top to hold it in place when you drop that subframe is my understanding, so it's "remove the engine and transmission", which gets involved with disconnecting a boatload of stuff that has to be attached to the body. As you indicate "not fun". I'm unclear if the factory engines had top side support or not, but seeing as how it was effectively a FWD drivetrain (lifted out something else as I recall), I wouldn't be surprised.
I do agree that the Fiero was possibly one of the most underrated pieces from GM at the time. I do wish the i4 that they'd put in it wasn't so anemic. It might have really given the MR2 a run for it's money. Except for the entire "GM quality" thing. The 80s were not a good time for NA manufacturers in the quality department.
Name one American "sports" car that can do more than drive in a straight line?
Since no qualification for price tag was listed, I can rattle off a few easily:
Corvette ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yKb6iSWc0k ), despite it's archaic rear suspension that's been updated probably nearly as far as it can be.
Cadillac CTS-V ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky8ZiO6ebn0 ). I'm not clear if they use the same rear suspension as the Corvette tho.
Viper ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUK2ZmDz7eo ).
Panoz, though I don't have any video of them handy.
Ford GT, sadly no longer manufactured.
Saleen makes a few things that are nice.
Supposedly the new Camaro ZL-1 is quick, but it could be argued that's a Holden from Oz. Same goes for the Pontiac G8, which was once claimed to potentially be real competition for the M5. I'd have to see a side-by-side to really be convinced of that however.
That said, I prefer the old British superlights and stuff derived from those ideas. The Miata's probably one of the best value for money in the small sports car market currently, followed by the BRZ/FR-S (which I sincerely hope the aftermarket embraces just as much as they have the NA/NB Miata), Impreza, and Evolution that you can get in the states. If you're willing to spend a little more, I've read that the BMW 1 series is nice, particularly in the hideously expensive (for the class) 1 series M. That does make me a little sad.
Only if you don't mind having to drop the subframe to actually change spark plugs/do oil changes/replace accessories that are prone to failure such as the alternator or starter. I'd love a lift at my home, but I can't quite swing it yet.
While I understand your sentiment, I don't necessarily agree with it:
The Sun's at the center (Galileo)
The Earth is flat (Columus)
AC electricity is dangerous (Tesla)
That thing will never fly (Wright Bros)
Going faster than the speed of sound is impossible (Yeager, et. al.)
No one can survive in space (Gagarin)
There's a lot of things that many naysayers said weren't possible. The human mind is a powerful thing. The written and spoken word lets us hand down the knowledge we gain from our mistakes to our successors in hopes that they will improve on it.
As for the two you mentioned, Chernobyl was a hideous design (active failsafes, is my understanding, among other things), Fukushima was a combination of compromise and bad synergy. We'll learn from them and make the next versions better. At least I hope so. The Thorium based units look REALLY interesting from a layperson's viewpoint.
I can tell you that most people on juries are pretty dumb and incapable of understanding the issues they are presented with.
Part of the issue is it's supposed to be a 'jury of your peers.' So if the trial concerns a complicated technology issue, then the jury should be highly skilled technologists - Those are the plaintiff and defendant's 'peers,' not some guy who sells ABS pipe at Home Depot.
I used to hold this belief, until someone pointed out (here) that having "professional juries" is potentially a dangerous thing. Working in industry [x], you know that [y] happens even if it's TECHNICALLY not supposed to. You've done it yourself because you understood the risks and in your case it wasn't a huge deal. Now [y] blows up in someone's face causing [z] and the professional jury comes to the point of "well, we all do it so we'll let him off, despite the fact that it caused [z] with the results of [a], [b]. and [c]".
I agree that there are problems, particularly in highly technical cases, that are not easy to articulate. If the lawyers involved can't bring it down to a level that the common man can understand it, they don't understand the problem properly either.
How can we get our kids interested in science, which revolves around a lot of diligent work searching for truth, only to find the rewards start out with being called the teacher's pet, progressing through "being a Boy Scout", "not a 'team player'", then forcible unemployment because one feels obligated to "do that which is right"?
To quote (of all people) Indiana Jones: [science] is the search for fact... not truth. If it's truth you're looking for, Dr. Tyree's philosophy class is right down the hall.
yes, it's to be registered as a Category L7E (Quadbike), power restricted to 15kW (20HP). if you've ever looked up the specs on quad-bikes you'll know that that's more than enough to get to 70mph, even with a 4x4 quad with a CVT gearbox... eventually:)
you're absolutely right, though: there's absolutely no chance it would pass as a standard car. paradoxically, however, analysis shows that quad-bike cars in Europe, such as the Aixam Mega, the Ligier and others, are involved in *less* accidents than standard cars. perhaps it's because they look so ridiculous that other road users give them a wide berth, just as they would a "Learner Driver"; perhaps it's because the 0-60 time is typically double or triple that of a standard car, the driver knows damn well that they can't take risks. all of which, as far as i'm concerned, is good news.
Is this how stuff like the Robin and the Piel cars still maintain number plates?
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Under $100k in my area (suburban Washington DC), is barely a living wage.
It's amazing how weak people get once they get paid a good salary for any length of time. Why don't you try going to a park and finding a homeless guy that sleeps on a bench and tell him how you can barely live with less than $100k a year. You are either exaggerating, or you have no concept of what is really needed to live and what things are luxuries.
I wouldn't say it's either of those things: For most of western society, people live up to their means. This means that the poster probably has a reasonably nice home or a very convenient apartment/condo near his place of employment. Toys (some paid for, some with a lien) broadband, "eating well" (however you define that, it often costs much more than eating basic), etc all add up.
That said, DC is an awfully expensive place to be, even if you're trying to be frugal.
I assure you that neither of those things has EVER come up in a job interview.
But they have in the salary planning. They know what they're getting, and pay accordingly.
Perhaps in larger or .gov shops, but certainly not in the small shops I have experience with.
It is more than $43k, but less than $50k. IT for two locations, the telephony guy, AV guy for both places, software development for web and windows (python and c#/vb.net), occasionally little bits of electronics work, dev for one android app, and I'm the help desk for our employees (the on call part). I also occasionally change light bulbs, fix simple plumbing issues, and run a vacuum cleaner when necessary. I work for a small business... that's just how it goes.
So no, I am definitely not a Google caliber developer. And I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining... I know those guys are brilliant and deserve every penny. I just had a knee-jerk reaction to the previous post's suggestion that $128k isn't a lot of money. To me it would be like winning the lotto.
I have a similar job description (PHP, Perl and C#) for only marginally more cash. While I have sympathy, it's nice to know I'm not the only guy who's in the same situation. And yes, you're exactly right: That's just how it goes in small businesses.
I've seen two instances where a drive failed. Each time there were no handy replacement drives. Within a week a second drive died the same way as the first! back to backup tapes! Better to have replacement drives in boxes waiting.
This. Your spares closet is your best friend in the enterprise. Ensure you keep it stocked.
(this was the 3-cylinder model) --- a rebadged Suzuki Swift.
~55MPG (no air bags, no air conditioning, no stereo).
I'd like to see some sort of equivalent entry-level vehicle at a reasonable price....
Doesn't exist in the current US market due to regulation, not lack of technology. Closest you're going to get is the VW Golf TDI.
Wow the next generation Yugo. I know somebody who bought one. It proved again he was cheap as hell and did really stupid things to prove it.
Probably the best summary of the Nano in the thread.
You seem to think that people in the south are the ones buying the majority of SUVs and Trucks for some reason? Are you insinuating that the southerners are stupider with their money than Northerners for some reason?
Funny...from what I've observed, living beyond your means....runs rampant throughout the whole USA...
And in my travels, I've seen no shortage of SUVs and pickup trucks anywhere in the US....so, not sure why you're trying to single out the southern part of the US.
It's hip to stereotype people living in the deep south IS. Didn't you get the memo?
Plus, let's be honest, how many will wrench on their own cars, or know a mechanic that will actually risk taking used parts? I know of exactly one, and he's just for hire when he's hard up for cash.
What it also knows is that it can count on people like you to propagate cynicism and defeatism, so that nothing ever changes.
The implication is that cynicism and defeatism hasn't proven justified. I think that many people see the entire US Fed as a fairly broken system until there's a paradigm shift on (at least) the hill. This is most likely due to the ineptness of anyone to actually describe anything happening up there without seemingly miles of legalese qualifiers. Bills that have massive impacts on citizens get passed without even a glance by the reps up there. Ask your local rep if they read every word of every piece of legislation that they vote on. I'm willing to bet they'll say "Of course I do!", lying through their teeth. Mine does the same thing.
I have proposed that no legislation can be brought to the floor unless it's under 200 pages in the standard format that they use up there. At least then everyone would be able to read it in a reasonable amount of time. I haven't made much traction with this proposal tho.
I've noticed this as well - my boss usually puts some Pandora station on the office sound system. It tends to play a very limited selection - we'll often hear the same song several times a day.
I don't use them mainly because I already have a 30GB collection of carefully organized music, mostly video game soundtracks that don't exactly show up on Pandora anyways, much less organized by originating console with playlists for similar in-game context.
That's not to say that they DON'T have video game music. I get several tracks from Final Fantasy, Halo, and a few others on my "Final Fantasy" station.
So the the best example of something wholly made 'made in America' is a weapon. Well done.
Is a bow. A bow can be used as a weapon, certainly; So can your car.
Words mean something. Most bows these days are used for sport or hunting. I don't recall a single news story where a bow was used as a weapon. More often knives (which you have in your kitchen, yes?) and firearms.
Thus the "GM quality" statement.... And unfortunately it wasn't just GM... I don't know of a well built car from the big 3 from basically the late 70s to the early 90s. Some would say mid 2000 is when they finally turned the corner, but there were hints of it before.
Well, dropping a subframe is no big deal, but I wouldn't want to have to do it a lot. I had it off my 240SX a couple times for differential swaps and I've half-dropped it on my 300SD to replace the rear springs.
The big v8 that you're referring to doesn't have any motor mounts up top to hold it in place when you drop that subframe is my understanding, so it's "remove the engine and transmission", which gets involved with disconnecting a boatload of stuff that has to be attached to the body. As you indicate "not fun". I'm unclear if the factory engines had top side support or not, but seeing as how it was effectively a FWD drivetrain (lifted out something else as I recall), I wouldn't be surprised.
I do agree that the Fiero was possibly one of the most underrated pieces from GM at the time. I do wish the i4 that they'd put in it wasn't so anemic. It might have really given the MR2 a run for it's money. Except for the entire "GM quality" thing. The 80s were not a good time for NA manufacturers in the quality department.
^ ++
For those who don't get the reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hammond#Vampire_dragster_crash
It's called blue sky research.
Name one American "sports" car that can do more than drive in a straight line?
Since no qualification for price tag was listed, I can rattle off a few easily:
Corvette ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yKb6iSWc0k ), despite it's archaic rear suspension that's been updated probably nearly as far as it can be.
Cadillac CTS-V ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky8ZiO6ebn0 ). I'm not clear if they use the same rear suspension as the Corvette tho.
Viper ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUK2ZmDz7eo ).
Panoz, though I don't have any video of them handy.
Ford GT, sadly no longer manufactured.
Saleen makes a few things that are nice.
Supposedly the new Camaro ZL-1 is quick, but it could be argued that's a Holden from Oz. Same goes for the Pontiac G8, which was once claimed to potentially be real competition for the M5. I'd have to see a side-by-side to really be convinced of that however.
That said, I prefer the old British superlights and stuff derived from those ideas. The Miata's probably one of the best value for money in the small sports car market currently, followed by the BRZ/FR-S (which I sincerely hope the aftermarket embraces just as much as they have the NA/NB Miata), Impreza, and Evolution that you can get in the states. If you're willing to spend a little more, I've read that the BMW 1 series is nice, particularly in the hideously expensive (for the class) 1 series M. That does make me a little sad.
Not classic, but done before: http://www.ronpatrickstuff.com/
Only if you don't mind having to drop the subframe to actually change spark plugs/do oil changes/replace accessories that are prone to failure such as the alternator or starter. I'd love a lift at my home, but I can't quite swing it yet.
It's almost a tit for tat copy of Windows Phone, in so many ways.
I was thinking the exact same thing: There's a lot of Metro those mockups.
There's a lot of things that many naysayers said weren't possible. The human mind is a powerful thing. The written and spoken word lets us hand down the knowledge we gain from our mistakes to our successors in hopes that they will improve on it.
As for the two you mentioned, Chernobyl was a hideous design (active failsafes, is my understanding, among other things), Fukushima was a combination of compromise and bad synergy. We'll learn from them and make the next versions better. At least I hope so. The Thorium based units look REALLY interesting from a layperson's viewpoint.
I can tell you that most people on juries are pretty dumb and incapable of understanding the issues they are presented with.
Part of the issue is it's supposed to be a 'jury of your peers.' So if the trial concerns a complicated technology issue, then the jury should be highly skilled technologists - Those are the plaintiff and defendant's 'peers,' not some guy who sells ABS pipe at Home Depot.
I used to hold this belief, until someone pointed out (here) that having "professional juries" is potentially a dangerous thing. Working in industry [x], you know that [y] happens even if it's TECHNICALLY not supposed to. You've done it yourself because you understood the risks and in your case it wasn't a huge deal. Now [y] blows up in someone's face causing [z] and the professional jury comes to the point of "well, we all do it so we'll let him off, despite the fact that it caused [z] with the results of [a], [b]. and [c]".
I agree that there are problems, particularly in highly technical cases, that are not easy to articulate. If the lawyers involved can't bring it down to a level that the common man can understand it, they don't understand the problem properly either.
I'll just leave this here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging
Right down the path of management, which, lets be honest, isn't where some of us are interested in going.
I'm completely happy to be working for someone*. They can take care of the political and sales thing while I get down to interesting things
* Provided that someone's goals and ideas are aligned with my own
How can we get our kids interested in science, which revolves around a lot of diligent work searching for truth, only to find the rewards start out with being called the teacher's pet, progressing through "being a Boy Scout", "not a 'team player'", then forcible unemployment because one feels obligated to "do that which is right"?
To quote (of all people) Indiana Jones: [science] is the search for fact... not truth. If it's truth you're looking for, Dr. Tyree's philosophy class is right down the hall.
Pedantic? Perhaps. Science should be.
yes, it's to be registered as a Category L7E (Quadbike), power restricted to 15kW (20HP). if you've ever looked up the specs on quad-bikes you'll know that that's more than enough to get to 70mph, even with a 4x4 quad with a CVT gearbox... eventually :)
you're absolutely right, though: there's absolutely no chance it would pass as a standard car. paradoxically, however, analysis shows that quad-bike cars in Europe, such as the Aixam Mega, the Ligier and others, are involved in *less* accidents than standard cars. perhaps it's because they look so ridiculous that other road users give them a wide berth, just as they would a "Learner Driver"; perhaps it's because the 0-60 time is typically double or triple that of a standard car, the driver knows damn well that they can't take risks. all of which, as far as i'm concerned, is good news.
Is this how stuff like the Robin and the Piel cars still maintain number plates?