If the person who said it is in the US. If they are in another country, their milage may vary. At any rate, it is certainly in bad taste, regardless of whether you like Clinton or not (I don't like his policies, but it isn't a personal thing). If you don't like the president (or if you don't like what he is doing), the proper way to get him out of office is to have him impeached (which Clinton fairly narrowly avoided). Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at things, that is not a very easy thing to do.
I think it is time for all of us non-California/Oregon residents to call our state representatives and ask them to pass a law like CA and OR have! Then we can take advantage of $400 free money from Microsoft too.
..the//gs was useless aside from that, a hopped-up//e, at twice the price of the Amiga1000.
Actually they were about the same price on the street if you compared similarly equipped systems. Sounds like you are doing the old 'compare other guy's list price to my mail order price' routine. Calling a II GS 'useless' of course is a matter of opinion. Both the Amiga and the II GS suffered from a lack of software (because things were swinging towards the Mac and PC direction by then), the Amiga moreso than the GS (the GS had lots of apps, but most of them weren't 'GS specific'). The GS had more productivity type apps, while the Amiga had a stronger game/demo software market. It was more a matter of what you wanted to do with the machine.
I came this close to buying a gs instead of an Amiga, and I never regretted the decision.
The NeXT? At $10k, I think it was a little out of the $1300 Amiga's range.
Of course it also came with a much faster CPU (25MHz 68030 vs 7MHz 68000), more memory, FPU, MMU, large megapixel display, rewritable optical, hard drive, built in networking, SCSI and lots of expansion slots.
Besides, the original NeXTs were b/w.
Actually they were 4 level greyscale. Again, depending on what kind of work you wanted to do, the NeXT megapixel display might be better than the Amiga's video.
Very interesting, but not at all surprising. This certainly seems consistant with Gateway only having been interested in the Patent portfolio all along. This would seem to be a big win for Gateway. They get to keep what they really wanted and probably got some $$$ back on top of it. Better than that, now they have someone else to push all the Amiga fans onto!:-)
That isn't what I said. Actually, quite the opposite, the point was that the port would be new, and thus behind where KDE and Gnome are now. You can't expect code ported from one platform to another (particularly code written as tightly to proprietary hardware as AmigaOS) is going to be stable immediately.
hmmm, how old is Unix?
Well, Linux is not exactly UNIX. However, Linux is already very stable. Linux has been under constant improvement for the past 7 years, AmigaOS has been essentially abandoned for 5.
Anyway, Amiga is MORE than A desktop environment, it was a MICROKERNAL OS, even LINUX is not as advanced as a Microkernal OS
Oh please. There are certainly differing opinions in the computer world on whether microkernal OSes are really better than monolithic kernels. At any rate, MkLinux has already proven that Linux is not entirely incompatible with the concept of microkernels.
(Linus was programming for an i386 architecture after all)
And Linux now runs on a lot more platforms than just x86. AmigaOS only runs on one so far, and that is unlikely to change any time soon, since it is closed source and highly dependent on proprietary hardware. There was a chance for the Amiga to jump hardware platforms around the time that Commodore bought the farm, but now it seems too late.
You cant make Linux into a Microkernal os by giving it a pretty desktop environment
And you can't make AmigaOS into a portable, network savvy, secure, multiuser, memory protected OS overnight either. Linux is not a desktop environment, it is a base on which to run one, but it is more than that. It is a base to run all kinds of server applications as well.
There are a lot of ways that the abandonment of AmigaOS for the past 5+ years has really put it so far behind that it really looks kind of hopeless.
If a deep pocketed company like Gateway doesn't think they can make a go of it with the Amiga, what makes you think some underfunded startup can? This new company seems like the shakiest attempt at resurrecting the Amiga yet.
That is news to me. I've used both Gnome and KDE. While Gnome still has a few rough edges (but is improving rapidly) KDE is pretty nicely polished and seems pretty stable to me.
So you are trying to tell me that a new port from one platform and OS to another of a desktop environment that has been essentially abandoned for 5 years is going to be more stable than KDE?
Actually I can think of two machines contemporary to the Amiga that had sound that could put the Amiga to shame. First was the Apple II GS, which had a digital sound chip in it produced by Ensoniq. Second (and even more impressive) were the NeXT Cube/NeXT Stations, which had a Motorola 56001 DSP chip onboard. Read up on that chip and what it could do, still fairly impressive even by today's standards.
Amiga's main advantages were in its hardware (which was cheap, for the time, and powerful)
Unfortunately, some of the design compromises made to make the Amiga cheap at the time came back to haunt it later when the price of hardware changed. Too much of the hardware shortcuts that seemed cool in 1985 made it difficult for Commodore to keep up with other systems by the early 1990's. Too many things were tightly interwoven around things like NTSC/PAL video, which became a problem when cheap high resolution SVGA displays in the PC/Mac world changed people's expectations when it came to non-interlaced resolution and palate size. PC/Mac hardware started including powerful graphics coprocessors and stereo sound. With the advent of huge clock speeds, memory sizes, caches and hard drives, the PC made up in brute force with cheap off the shelf components what had once required custom hardware. Commodore/Amiga users had to deal with higher prices due to a smaller market for software and add-on peripherals such as network cards, SCSI adapters, etc.
As for the community, unfortunately, like most semi-grass-roots movements (Mac, OS/2 and Linux for example), the Amiga community was saddled with their share of the bad sort of zealots. That probably isn't such a big deal though, because even the 'establishment' such as DOS/Windows have their own problems in that area.
So long as they hold the appropriate patents and trademarks to go along with (C) they're pretty much covered.
Patents are only good for 17 years. Many of the Patents in the Commodore/Amiga portfolio are already expiring or will be fairly soon. Making the assumption that Commodore/Amiga was filing patents up until their demise in 1994, the last of their patents will expire around 2011, which isn't really that far off.
As for trademarks, they are a little different. Trademark holders have to actively use and defend their trademarks or risk losing them. Given the way that Amiga has operated, or essentially not operated, it doesn't seem totally impossible that someone could challenge their trademark due to neglect within the next few years. I don't know why anyone would bother to do so, but in today's litigous society, it doesn't seem too far out.
Rumor at the time that Gateway bought the corpse of Amiga was that they were mainly interested in the Patent portfolio. Being a 'screwdriver factory' type clone builder, Gateway was always at a complete disadvantage when dealing with companies like Intel, IBM, Microsoft, etc. which have a large Patent portfolio. Buying a company which had a portfolio is an easy way for a company to level that playing field some.
It would be interesting to see how the Commodore/Amiga patent portfolio is transferred with this sale. I would guess that Gateway may have already gotten all they needed to out of the Patents and felt it was time to cash back out.
Or perhaps the Amiga isn't different enough an animal to justify being another desktop environment under Linux. Other than nostalgia for ex-Amiga fans, what real advantage would an Amiga-flavored desktop environment for Linux have that it would draw any significant number of users away from more established efforts such as KDE and Gnome?
Have you ever noticed that you have no idea how the moderation/karma system on Slashdot works? You might try reading the FAQ.
A quick refresher: People who have enough positive karma post at +1 unless they specifically opt out. Perhaps I should have done that, but I didn't think about it at the time. And given that the article is about personal freedom restriction by governments, it isn't really that far off topic.
I just wish the US situation didn't make their voice so much louder than their opponents'
What a load of crap. The voice of the anti-freedom activists are much more loud than the NRA. Only the NRA speaks for the NRA, the anti-freedom activists have most of the popular news media, most of the television industry and most of the motion picture industry to speak for them. For free. There is a lot of talk about the supposed strength of the 'gun lobby', but in all reality, most of the political power comes down on the anti-freedom side.
I use Linux at home, and have ADSL. It is really quite simple. I have the external Cisco 675 DSL router hooked up to my 24 port switching hub and my Linux boxes hooked into that. For simple single machine hookups, you can run a crossover network cable directly between the DSL router and the computer and you don't need a hub. One of the Linux boxes has my DSL IP assigned to it, the others all use an internal IP. The firewall/proxy server machine is a wimpy Pentium 75 with 64M of RAM (used to be 32M) and a 4.3G hard drive (I use squid, a cacheing proxy server to speed up web browsing). I know a number of people who use the @home cable modem service with Linux and have seen posts from people who use RoadRunner cable modems with Linux. I think their external cable modems hook up pretty similarly to the way the Cisco 675 does.
I like the lower cost of Linux compared even to 95/98. Compared to NT it is significantly lower in cost. Most of the other software I need is either free or cheap for Linux. I have purchased a few other peices of software such as the commercial version of WordPerfect, but at under $100 retail, it is cheaper than Microsoft Word anyway. Not only does Linux and the key software I use with it cost less, Linux is significantly more efficient with its use of hardware resources. NT would be nearly unusable in the configuration I have for what I use that P75 box for, let alone when it only had 32M in it. I like the reliability and stability of Linux. I have my key Linux boxes on UPSes, and they just run and run and run. My experience with NT has been that it is better than 95/98 in stability, but still no match for Linux.
Basically Linux lets me do things at home that there is no way I could afford to do legally if I used Microsoft products. Even if I had a much larger computer budget I still wouldn't enjoy the reliability I do with Linux if I used Microsoft.
I think I'd be happy just cutting it all, thanks. I am not so much concerned with an immediate tax cut. Before we can worry about that we need to worry about the huge federal debt. So far the government has only made token progress on that.
I dunno... I live about 6 hours from Chicago, but I've never heard of that place. Where is it?
Weird Stuff Warehouse always had all kinds of bizarre stuff. Everything from computer gear to massive radio transmission gear. It just depends what they happen to find I guess.
Used to be like that around here about 15 years ago before the state ended their monopoly on liquor retailing (although unfortunately not their wholesaling monopoly, which keeps prices higher than they should be). Actually it wasn't quite that bad, as you could buy beer (although only weak beer) and wine coolers at grocery stores and gas stations even back in the bad old days.
How cheap is cheap? We have both DSL and cable modem available here. I have 256K DSL, it runs between $40-$55 a month depending on ISP and whether you want always on and dynamic or static IPs. Cable modem prices are similar.
2. Clean air. (Not yet)
Air is clean around here.
3. Good theatres, both live and movie. (Check)
Movie screens are adequate and slowly improving here, live theatre is not nearly so good as the twin cities, although not completely dead.
4. Four distinct seasons. (Check)
Here as well, albiet winter is generally more mild. Personally I'd rather have spring or fall all year. I could live with summer all year. I hate winter.
5. More cheap bandwidth.
See above.
6. UNIX jobs. (Check)
Check here as well. Could always use more of course, but things aren't bad.
7. Did I mention cheap bandwidth?
Yes, you mentioned that one already.:-)
8. Affordable housing. (Not as bad as SV, but nasty).
Here we have it much better than the twin cities. House prices here are much cheaper. You can actually buy a decent starter home here for under $100k. You can buy a really nice home between $125-$150k. For $250-$350k you can get a small mansion. Rent is corespondingly cheap compared to other places.
Not that many companies around here (midwest) where I live make you sign non-compete agreements. I've never heard of anyone requiring an assignment of rights to IP like that around here.
I have DSL, I could get a cable modem. Unfortunately we have no beaches, no skiing and no nice national parks. Weather is hot and humid in the summer and cold and snowy in the winter.
However, we do have nice lax gun laws around here, so you can own just about anything you like. Unfortunately getting a concealed carry permit isn't that easy here (depends on the whim of the sheriff of each county), and you can't get type-III permits at all, so it could be better.
There is a liquor store with a drive-up window about two miles from where I live. It is located in a building that used to be a bank branch or a restaurant or something. You can drive up, talk to the little speaker and pick up and pay for your order at the window...
Have fun buying that $800,000 house that costs $250,000 here in the northeast!
That kind of house would probably cost between $125,000 to $150,000 here in the midwest (assuming you are talking something in the 1500-2000 sq foot w/2 car attached garage). Maybe slightly more in a ritzy new subdivision, somewhat less if its in an older part of town.
Seriously, there are $250,000 houses out here, but most of them are like small mansions, 4+ bedroom, 3500sq feet or larger, 1/2 acre or larger lots, 3 car garage, etc.
As for gas, I have generally been paying about $1.22 a gallon lately for the 90 octane mid-grade gas.
$750 / month for a split-level second floor 2 bedroom apartment in a really nice complex. Compare that to sillycon valley or Boston or DC metro.
Much cheaper than SV, I remember when I lived out there that $1200 a month was not uncommon for a small studio or efficiency apartment. Of course $750 is over $100 a month more than my house payment on a 1440 sq foot 1.5 story house with detached 1.5 car garage out here in the midwest.
Unfortunately the bad thing is that the weather out here sucks (hot summers and cold winters) and the suit-and-tie culture is probably somewhere between the two coasts. Depends on the company, some are very formal, others not. The normal dress at the place I work is decent jeans or dockers & a polo shirt for most IT people. If you wear a suit & tie you will get asked where you are interviewing at.
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If the person who said it is in the US. If they are in another country, their milage may vary. At any rate, it is certainly in bad taste, regardless of whether you like Clinton or not (I don't like his policies, but it isn't a personal thing). If you don't like the president (or if you don't like what he is doing), the proper way to get him out of office is to have him impeached (which Clinton fairly narrowly avoided). Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at things, that is not a very easy thing to do.
I was home drinking champagne! There is no way in hell I would have gone in to work over new years.
I think it is time for all of us non-California/Oregon residents to call our state representatives and ask them to pass a law like CA and OR have! Then we can take advantage of $400 free money from Microsoft too.
..the //gs was useless aside from that, a hopped-up //e, at twice the price of the Amiga1000.
Actually they were about the same price on the street if you compared similarly equipped systems. Sounds like you are doing the old 'compare other guy's list price to my mail order price' routine.
Calling a II GS 'useless' of course is a matter of opinion. Both the Amiga and the II GS suffered from a lack of software (because things were swinging towards the Mac and PC direction by then), the Amiga moreso than the GS (the GS had lots of apps, but most of them weren't 'GS specific'). The GS had more productivity type apps, while the Amiga had a stronger game/demo software market. It was more a matter of what you wanted to do with the machine.
I came this close to buying a gs instead of an Amiga, and I never regretted the decision.
The NeXT? At $10k, I think it was a little out of the $1300 Amiga's range.
Of course it also came with a much faster CPU (25MHz 68030 vs 7MHz 68000), more memory, FPU, MMU, large megapixel display, rewritable optical, hard drive, built in networking, SCSI and lots of expansion slots.
Besides, the original NeXTs were b/w.
Actually they were 4 level greyscale. Again, depending on what kind of work you wanted to do, the NeXT megapixel display might be better than the Amiga's video.
Very interesting, but not at all surprising. This certainly seems consistant with Gateway only having been interested in the Patent portfolio all along. This would seem to be a big win for Gateway. They get to keep what they really wanted and probably got some $$$ back on top of it. Better than that, now they have someone else to push all the Amiga fans onto! :-)
What? because its old it cant be stable?
That isn't what I said. Actually, quite the opposite, the point was that the port would be new, and thus behind where KDE and Gnome are now. You can't expect code ported from one platform to another (particularly code written as tightly to proprietary hardware as AmigaOS) is going to be stable immediately.
hmmm, how old is Unix?
Well, Linux is not exactly UNIX. However, Linux is already very stable. Linux has been under constant improvement for the past 7 years, AmigaOS has been essentially abandoned for 5.
Anyway, Amiga is MORE than A desktop environment, it was a MICROKERNAL OS, even LINUX is not as advanced as a Microkernal OS
Oh please. There are certainly differing opinions in the computer world on whether microkernal OSes are really better than monolithic kernels. At any rate, MkLinux has already proven that Linux is not entirely incompatible with the concept of microkernels.
(Linus was programming for an i386 architecture after all)
And Linux now runs on a lot more platforms than just x86. AmigaOS only runs on one so far, and that is unlikely to change any time soon, since it is closed source and highly dependent on proprietary hardware. There was a chance for the Amiga to jump hardware platforms around the time that Commodore bought the farm, but now it seems too late.
You cant make Linux into a Microkernal os by giving it a pretty desktop environment
And you can't make AmigaOS into a portable, network savvy, secure, multiuser, memory protected OS overnight either. Linux is not a desktop environment, it is a base on which to run one, but it is more than that. It is a base to run all kinds of server applications as well.
There are a lot of ways that the abandonment of AmigaOS for the past 5+ years has really put it so far behind that it really looks kind of hopeless.
If a deep pocketed company like Gateway doesn't think they can make a go of it with the Amiga, what makes you think some underfunded startup can? This new company seems like the shakiest attempt at resurrecting the Amiga yet.
That is news to me. I've used both Gnome and KDE. While Gnome still has a few rough edges (but is improving rapidly) KDE is pretty nicely polished and seems pretty stable to me.
So you are trying to tell me that a new port from one platform and OS to another of a desktop environment that has been essentially abandoned for 5 years is going to be more stable than KDE?
Pardon me if I am a bit skeptical.
can some one elighten me why having a patent profolio is useful to a generic systerm cloner?
is just useful for patent trading reasons?
Yes, it gives them a better position when negotiating with a big patent holding company.
And the sound was superb.
Actually I can think of two machines contemporary to the Amiga that had sound that could put the Amiga to shame. First was the Apple II GS, which had a digital sound chip in it produced by Ensoniq. Second (and even more impressive) were the NeXT Cube/NeXT Stations, which had a Motorola 56001 DSP chip onboard. Read up on that chip and what it could do, still fairly impressive even by today's standards.
Amiga's main advantages were in its hardware (which was cheap, for the time, and powerful)
Unfortunately, some of the design compromises made to make the Amiga cheap at the time came back to haunt it later when the price of hardware changed. Too much of the hardware shortcuts that seemed cool in 1985 made it difficult for Commodore to keep up with other systems by the early 1990's. Too many things were tightly interwoven around things like NTSC/PAL video, which became a problem when cheap high resolution SVGA displays in the PC/Mac world changed people's expectations when it came to non-interlaced resolution and palate size. PC/Mac hardware started including powerful graphics coprocessors and stereo sound. With the advent of huge clock speeds, memory sizes, caches and hard drives, the PC made up in brute force with cheap off the shelf components what had once required custom hardware. Commodore/Amiga users had to deal with higher prices due to a smaller market for software and add-on peripherals such as network cards, SCSI adapters, etc.
As for the community, unfortunately, like most semi-grass-roots movements (Mac, OS/2 and Linux for example), the Amiga community was saddled with their share of the bad sort of zealots. That probably isn't such a big deal though, because even the 'establishment' such as DOS/Windows have their own problems in that area.
So long as they hold the appropriate patents and trademarks to go along with (C) they're pretty much covered.
Patents are only good for 17 years. Many of the Patents in the Commodore/Amiga portfolio are already expiring or will be fairly soon. Making the assumption that Commodore/Amiga was filing patents up until their demise in 1994, the last of their patents will expire around 2011, which isn't really that far off.
As for trademarks, they are a little different. Trademark holders have to actively use and defend their trademarks or risk losing them. Given the way that Amiga has operated, or essentially not operated, it doesn't seem totally impossible that someone could challenge their trademark due to neglect within the next few years. I don't know why anyone would bother to do so, but in today's litigous society, it doesn't seem too far out.
Rumor at the time that Gateway bought the corpse of Amiga was that they were mainly interested in the Patent portfolio. Being a 'screwdriver factory' type clone builder, Gateway was always at a complete disadvantage when dealing with companies like Intel, IBM, Microsoft, etc. which have a large Patent portfolio. Buying a company which had a portfolio is an easy way for a company to level that playing field some.
It would be interesting to see how the Commodore/Amiga patent portfolio is transferred with this sale. I would guess that Gateway may have already gotten all they needed to out of the Patents and felt it was time to cash back out.
Or perhaps the Amiga isn't different enough an animal to justify being another desktop environment under Linux. Other than nostalgia for ex-Amiga fans, what real advantage would an Amiga-flavored desktop environment for Linux have that it would draw any significant number of users away from more established efforts such as KDE and Gnome?
The problem is that a generic x86 box with Linux does all that for less than half the $1000 you mention.
Is there really a big enough niche for Amiga to make it in today's world?
Have you ever noticed that you have no idea how the moderation/karma system on Slashdot works? You might try reading the FAQ.
A quick refresher: People who have enough positive karma post at +1 unless they specifically opt out. Perhaps I should have done that, but I didn't think about it at the time. And given that the article is about personal freedom restriction by governments, it isn't really that far off topic.
I just wish the US situation didn't make their voice so much louder than their opponents'
What a load of crap. The voice of the anti-freedom activists are much more loud than the NRA. Only the NRA speaks for the NRA, the anti-freedom activists have most of the popular news media, most of the television industry and most of the motion picture industry to speak for them. For free. There is a lot of talk about the supposed strength of the 'gun lobby', but in all reality, most of the political power comes down on the anti-freedom side.
I can run an ADSL on the OS (or cable modem).
I use Linux at home, and have ADSL. It is really quite simple. I have the external Cisco 675 DSL router hooked up to my 24 port switching hub and my Linux boxes hooked into that. For simple single machine hookups, you can run a crossover network cable directly between the DSL router and the computer and you don't need a hub. One of the Linux boxes has my DSL IP assigned to it, the others all use an internal IP. The firewall/proxy server machine is a wimpy Pentium 75 with 64M of RAM (used to be 32M) and a 4.3G hard drive (I use squid, a cacheing proxy server to speed up web browsing).
I know a number of people who use the @home cable modem service with Linux and have seen posts from people who use RoadRunner cable modems with Linux. I think their external cable modems hook up pretty similarly to the way the Cisco 675 does.
I like the lower cost of Linux compared even to 95/98. Compared to NT it is significantly lower in cost.
Most of the other software I need is either free or cheap for Linux. I have purchased a few other peices of software such as the commercial version of WordPerfect, but at under $100 retail, it is cheaper than Microsoft Word anyway.
Not only does Linux and the key software I use with it cost less, Linux is significantly more efficient with its use of hardware resources. NT would be nearly unusable in the configuration I have for what I use that P75 box for, let alone when it only had 32M in it.
I like the reliability and stability of Linux. I have my key Linux boxes on UPSes, and they just run and run and run. My experience with NT has been that it is better than 95/98 in stability, but still no match for Linux.
Basically Linux lets me do things at home that there is no way I could afford to do legally if I used Microsoft products. Even if I had a much larger computer budget I still wouldn't enjoy the reliability I do with Linux if I used Microsoft.
I think I'd be happy just cutting it all, thanks. I am not so much concerned with an immediate tax cut. Before we can worry about that we need to worry about the huge federal debt. So far the government has only made token progress on that.
I dunno... I live about 6 hours from Chicago, but I've never heard of that place. Where is it?
Weird Stuff Warehouse always had all kinds of bizarre stuff. Everything from computer gear to massive radio transmission gear. It just depends what they happen to find I guess.
Used to be like that around here about 15 years ago before the state ended their monopoly on liquor retailing (although unfortunately not their wholesaling monopoly, which keeps prices higher than they should be). Actually it wasn't quite that bad, as you could buy beer (although only weak beer) and wine coolers at grocery stores and gas stations even back in the bad old days.
I live about 250 miles south of the twin cities.
:-)
1. Cheap cheap cheap bandwidth. (Still waiting)
How cheap is cheap? We have both DSL and cable modem available here. I have 256K DSL, it runs between $40-$55 a month depending on ISP and whether you want always on and dynamic or static IPs. Cable modem prices are similar.
2. Clean air. (Not yet)
Air is clean around here.
3. Good theatres, both live and movie. (Check)
Movie screens are adequate and slowly improving here, live theatre is not nearly so good as the twin cities, although not completely dead.
4. Four distinct seasons. (Check)
Here as well, albiet winter is generally more mild. Personally I'd rather have spring or fall all year. I could live with summer all year. I hate winter.
5. More cheap bandwidth.
See above.
6. UNIX jobs. (Check)
Check here as well. Could always use more of course, but things aren't bad.
7. Did I mention cheap bandwidth?
Yes, you mentioned that one already.
8. Affordable housing. (Not as bad as SV, but nasty).
Here we have it much better than the twin cities. House prices here are much cheaper. You can actually buy a decent starter home here for under $100k. You can buy a really nice home between $125-$150k. For $250-$350k you can get a small mansion. Rent is corespondingly cheap compared to other places.
Not that many companies around here (midwest) where I live make you sign non-compete agreements. I've never heard of anyone requiring an assignment of rights to IP like that around here.
I have DSL, I could get a cable modem. Unfortunately we have no beaches, no skiing and no nice national parks. Weather is hot and humid in the summer and cold and snowy in the winter.
However, we do have nice lax gun laws around here, so you can own just about anything you like. Unfortunately getting a concealed carry permit isn't that easy here (depends on the whim of the sheriff of each county), and you can't get type-III permits at all, so it could be better.
There is a liquor store with a drive-up window about two miles from where I live. It is located in a building that used to be a bank branch or a restaurant or something. You can drive up, talk to the little speaker and pick up and pay for your order at the window...
Have fun buying that $800,000 house that costs $250,000 here in the northeast!
That kind of house would probably cost between $125,000 to $150,000 here in the midwest (assuming you are talking something in the 1500-2000 sq foot w/2 car attached garage). Maybe slightly more in a ritzy new subdivision, somewhat less if its in an older part of town.
Seriously, there are $250,000 houses out here, but most of them are like small mansions, 4+ bedroom, 3500sq feet or larger, 1/2 acre or larger lots, 3 car garage, etc.
As for gas, I have generally been paying about $1.22 a gallon lately for the 90 octane mid-grade gas.
$750 / month for a split-level second floor 2 bedroom apartment in a really nice complex. Compare that to sillycon valley or Boston or DC metro.
Much cheaper than SV, I remember when I lived out there that $1200 a month was not uncommon for a small studio or efficiency apartment. Of course $750 is over $100 a month more than my house payment on a 1440 sq foot 1.5 story house with detached 1.5 car garage out here in the midwest.
Unfortunately the bad thing is that the weather out here sucks (hot summers and cold winters) and the suit-and-tie culture is probably somewhere between the two coasts. Depends on the company, some are very formal, others not. The normal dress at the place I work is decent jeans or dockers & a polo shirt for most IT people. If you wear a suit & tie you will get asked where you are interviewing at.