It would be interesting to see how these types of drugs would impact the elderly. One of the worst things about aging can be the loss of mental function. With all the medical advances people are living very long, but the brain still continues to age. Most 80 year olds are not nearly as mentally capable as your average 60 year old. If these drugs make an elderly person more self sufficient the impact is enormous.
As a young & healthy person I doubt these types of drugs would be recommended for me. Steroids have been available used in a medically safe way for years, but doctors don't prescribe them easily because of the side effects. I would bet that these types of drugs would be any different.
Actually, the EPA states that the air in the US today is cleaner than it has been since
1970.
My favorite qote:
"Thanks to this progress, today's air is the cleanest most Americans have ever breathed," said Administrator Mike Leavitt. "Now, EPA is taking up the challenge to accelerate the pace of that progress into the future."
Nobody is denying that work needs to be done, but progress is being made.
A while ago a radio talk show host was complaining about the new FCC regulations. He mentioned something that I completely forgot. Remember the V chip? It was supposed to protect our children from foul content on TV. Every TV made in the last several years has one. His opinion was that almost nobody even knows their TV or VCR can do this, much less how to use it.
When I got home that evening I started playing & found the V chip setting. I censor what my kids watch myself (they are too young to know that I censor them) so the V chip isn't a big deal to me, but I was amazed that this was in my cheap $130 TV.
Anybody here use it? Seems to be a simpler solution than complaining to the federal government if it works.
Why should I (an Ohio tax payer) pay to keep a non-violent criminal in jail? Most jails are so over crowded they parole people early to make space. I don't care if you want to fine spammers, but don't ask me to support them in jail. Jail should be for people who are a danger to society, not for someone who sends junk emails.
I would think that other router vendors would be hurt first. The most common reason I read that people buy non-Cisco equipment is cost. If an open-source router works well, it will eat away at the market share of the cheapest vendors first. This could actually help Cisco fight off the competition.
Lots of people will want to promote public transportation instead of this. While public transportation works in some situations, it is impractical in many areas. Rural & subdivisions typically don't get good public transportation service because a bus will only go downtown.
Where I work I go from one subdivision to another area outside of town. I tried to use the bus to save myself time. I would have had to drive 3 miles to a bus station (there are no sidewalks & heavy traffic so I couldn't easily walk), take a bus downtown, switch to a different bus to take me back out of town, then go to work. Taking the bus would have taken me at least 3 hours to commute each day. Driving takes me about 45 minutes.
The people who I think would benifit the most from this would be the elderly. Lots of senior citizens can't drive and some really shouldn't drive. This would allow them to be much more independent and could delay the eventual move to an assisted living community. With the US population aging, this could be a big deal.
It also solves other problems. Nobody would be convicted of DUIs. Accidents due to bad weather (fog, heavy rain...) would be reduced. No more falling asleep at the wheel. No more drivers crossing the median.
Some interesting things could happen too. Could the car run erands without me? Could the car could take itself to the mechanic for an oil change or maintenance? Could it refuel itself while I'm working? If I order a pizza, could the car pick it up? Could it pick up a kid from school, take him to the dentist, & return him without a parent taking time off from work?
Of course, lots of small communities use tickets to increase their budgets. If the cars don't speed or violate traffic, some budgets would feel the impact. Mechanics would also need to be more technical. Odds are the small one-man mechanic business would suffer because of the cost of the diagnostic & repair equipment.
I got my son a Chaos Tower this Christmas. He is still too young to do it himself, but he loves these kinds of toys. It definitely isn't cheap, but it isn't as mind numbing as a video game either.
Look at what happened to the Democratic party as a whole.
- They spent more money on Kerry than on anyone else in their history. I even heard the out-spent the Republicans. - The conservative religious people in 11 states (including Ohio & Nevada) banned gay marriages which helped get out the religious vote. These people are traditionally anti-abortion republicans. Kerry is a well know supporter of abortion. - The Republicans gained seats in the Senate - The Republicans gained seats in the House of Representatives. - The Republicans hold the majority of governor's seats. - Democratic Senator Tom Daschle was defeated. The first time a party leader was defeated in 52 years. - The Democratic party spent a good deal of time in court in keeping Nader off of the ballot in some states. If you were a Nader supporting Democrat it was a tough pill to swallow.
The Democratic party was hit hard in this election. It will be interesting to see what the restructuring effort will be.
My father-in-law owns his own business. I asked him once what he thought about owning your own business. Keep in mind, he's been self employeed for almost 30 years & his business made about $200,000 in net profits last year.
* Getting started will be very tough. With no past work history and little experience, you'll have a difficult time getting a foot in the door. The first few years be very grateful if you break even with expenses. More than likely you'll go into debt. He said the first several years they went to garage sales to buy Christmas gifts for the kids because they couldn't afford to buy things at full price. He also grew about 70% of his own food on his farm just to break even. Starting will be hard.
* You will pay more in taxes being self employed. A lot more. If you thing the government likes to take a bite out of the working class, wait until you are your own business.
* You don't get health care or insurance. You may not think health care is important, but remember: If you don't work, you don't get paid. A serious illness could cost you a contract job. Getting hospitalized for any length of time will put you under a mountain of debt. Good health insurance costs a lot.
* You don't get a matching 401k plan or pension. That may not be important to you now, but it should be. It is never too early to start a retirement fund.
* Unless you eventually hire an employee, your business is only good while you own it. Let me explain. What are you expecting to do in 30+ years when you want to retire? If you are a one-person shop it won't be worth much because your clients deal with you, not your company.
* Get a lawyer. Be careful of what contracts you sign. If a client wants you to sign a contract it is to protect them, not you. You need to protect yourself.
* You may need an accountant. Small businesses are much less likely to be audited than individuals.
* If you are a white male, you don't qualify for any minority contracts or some small business loans. That puts you at a disadvantage for some jobs.
* Be sure what the payment terms are and get everything in writing. If you are going to impose penalties for non-payment be sure your clients know this.
* Be sure your clients know what you are going to do and what you are not going to do. Having delt with contractors you'd be surprised how easily a misunderstanding can happen and how quickly it will turn a relationship sour.
All those negatives aside, he said that he enjoys his own business. He has about 4 months out of the year where he works 6 days a week 16+ hour days but he enjoys the work and he is relatively free the rest of the time. My father-in-law is also to the point where he doesn't need to go looking for new work. He is well established enough that word of mouth brings him more work than he can handle.
Personally, I'd recommend getting another job first. A friend of mine decided to work for a non-profit organization. It gave him a low stress work environment and a really good feeling about his work. He didn't get rich overnight but it does give you something to put on a reference and a small or non-profit company may be more willing to let you do work on the side than any large company. It will also help make business contacts.
I have two kids and have had my share of issues. My advice to you is to think simple. Complex is unnecessary.
For when you are at home, get a cheap radio baby monitor. Get one which allows you to both plug-in and has a battery. I would recommend one with really good range & strength. When the baby is sleeping you'll want to be doing stuff outside & around the house.
When you are away get a good baby sitter & pay very very well. A happy baby sitter is a good baby sitter. I wouldn't try to stream video or audio or anything else. Asside from legal issues, you'll go paranoid very quickly. If you trust the baby sitter, they'll call you if there is an issue. If you don't trust the baby sitter you don't have any reason to leave your child with them.
A CD player in the baby room also was nice. We put in a classical CD and it was very soothing. It really helped calm the babies when they were fussy. They also quickly realized that when they heard the music, it was time to sleep. That really helps if you go to a different house (like your family) and expect the baby to sleep.
Another handy toy we got were radio headphones which we could connect to the TV. My first son would wake up at the slightest possible noise and always had trouble sleeping. Our house has a very open design & we couldn't watch a movie without waking him up. We got a cheap pair of headphones and we could relax with a movie after the baby went to sleep.
I would also recommend that, as your kid gets older, to not get them every technological toy. Blocks, Legos, Lincoln Logs & books are good toys. We have a ton of electronic toys designed to teach everything from the alphabet to basic math. They always play the best with low tech toys and learn much more through books. You'll also have a much more peaceful house without the buzzing & beeping.
The Firefox 1.0 Preview Release has been released. The 1.0 final release won't be out for another month or so, and as such, the version number for this release is 0.10PR. For those who still count in decimal, 0.10 is larger than 0.9, despite what you were taught in school. Check out the Release Notes, the System Requirements, and follow the links below to download a copy now!
How is 0.10 larger than 0.9? The last time I checked, 9 tenths is larger than 1 tenth. Granted my math skills are rusty, but that doesn't sound right.
I'd say that any tax cuts & tariffs don't create jobs. The help give people more money in their pockets. Most people consider this free money despite the fact that they gave it to the government. As the old saying goes, "free money ain't got no home", people spend it. The money they spend goes to businesses. The businesses see an increase in sales, they then increase output, which mean more jobs. The more jobs, the more money people have. The only way the government creates jobs is to increase the payroll of the government. The best thing any government can do is to get out of the way of businesses who try and create jobs.
This isn't a new idea and Bush certainly did't think of it. I believe Regan, JFK (a democrat), & others did this long ago. The results were about the same. A mild boost to help stimulate the economy. I'd bet that if Gore were president he would have done the same type of thing & Republicans would be complaining.
The president can help the economy a little, but he can screw it up majorly. Too high taxes on the extremely wealthy or taxing a certain industry is typically the worst thing to do. The very wealthy can move to another country much more easily than you or I.
Picking particular industries is typically a bad thing to do. A while ago a very high tax was introduced on luxury boats manufactured in the US. As a result people stopped buying them or bought them outside the US. The industry pretty much colapsed in the US and many manufacturing jobs were lost. The net result was that the working class, not the rich, was really hurt.
If you want to know who really controls the economy, talk to Mr. Greenspan. If he were to simply step down the economy would take a serious hit. He is definitely more influential than Bush. Every time he speaks, you get news coverage followed by a news commentary on the impact to the stock market.
As far as debt goes. Yep. We have a big one. However, remember two things.
1.) As a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, the debt isn't nearly as big as it has been in the past. That means we are producing more than ever before. Think of it this way, which is worse. To be in debt $1,000,000 and be producing $2,000,000 worth of goods, or be in debt $1,000 and be producing $1,000 worth of goods?
2.) The worst thing that could ever be done would be to have zero debt. Since the first days of this country, Hamilton realized that a federal debt is a good thing and healthy. The amount that debt can be debated, but this country should have some amount of debt.
I was a volunteer EMT for a few years. I've seen more than a few crashes. One of the nastiest was where a Toyota Corolla going 45-50 mph crossed the center line and hit head on to a small Ford Bronco was going about 35mph. The speed limit was 35 mph.
The Toyota was destroyed. Completely. We air lifted the driver to the hospital. Both legs were broken in numerous places, punctured lungs, both arms were broken, numerous broken ribs, broken hip. He was a train reck and he was wearing a seat belt. I saw the guy about a year later when he came to visit the fire house. He was still walking with severe difficulty and will probably never walk normally again.
The driver of the Bronco was also admitted to the hospital, but wasn't nearly as bad. He was lucky because at the last moment the other car turned slightly to the left and impacted slightly to the left of the driver's area.
The only reason I mention this is because physics is physics. Going into a head on collision at even a relatively slow speed is very dangerous when you strike a car going in the opposite direction. If I remember my physics correctly (and I may not), going head on you add both velocities. The toyota basically hit a brick wall going 80-85 mph. Seat belts or not, that's going to hurt.
We can't completely automate air traffic control systems. We can't even upgrade air traffic control systems made decades ago because of the fear of software bugs.
So let's try to make plan that can fly by itself.
No thanks. I like my pilots well trained, well paid, happy & human.
If you have any debt which will follow you to another area be careful. The cost of living may be less, but your existing credit cards, school, automobile & other debt isn't adjusted. A not-so-close frend of mine moved across the country & didn't take this into account. Suddenly all her school debt which was painful in one area of the country was crushing in another. This can be especially hurtful with high interest credit cards.
On the other hand, if you have a lot of equity in a house or other property, moving to an area with a lower cost of living can ammount to a nice chunk of change when you sell and pay for the same for less somewhere else.
There are already legacy COBOL programs that are key pieces of many businesses. Some of those are almost 30 years old. Not really exciting code, but still important to many businesses.
How many home users take tapes off site or have a real DR plan?
Bacula can handle different backup & retention policies quite easily. If you use the write to disk feature, it creates virtual disk volumes so you would manage it as you would any real tape device.
As for the three year on IDE devices, I have one PC with a 5 year old disk, another with a 7 year disk, & yet another with an 11 year old disk (yes I have lots of junk PCs).
I've had drive crashes, but the worst case is that I loose my backup PC. If that happens, all I've lost are my backups. For my home use that isn't terrible. If I had a business I'd probably think differently or invest in raid disk for fault tolerance, but for home use, I have other things I'd rather spend money on.
Slashdot Mirror
Now I need to worry about keeping my computer in shape as well as myself.
It would be interesting to see how these types of drugs would impact the elderly. One of the worst things about aging can be the loss of mental function. With all the medical advances people are living very long, but the brain still continues to age. Most 80 year olds are not nearly as mentally capable as your average 60 year old. If these drugs make an elderly person more self sufficient the impact is enormous.
As a young & healthy person I doubt these types of drugs would be recommended for me. Steroids have been available used in a medically safe way for years, but doctors don't prescribe them easily because of the side effects. I would bet that these types of drugs would be any different.
A co-worker of mine had the best way to explain it. Say the word "SKIP IF" in front of COND statement & it is much easier.
For example if you see
COND=(0,NE,STEP1)
Say to yourself
"SKIP IF 0 NE STEP1". In other words, skip this step if STEP1 didn't give a return code of zero. It makes simple JCL checking easier.
Of course another option is to simply use the JCL IF / THEN / ELSE / ENDIF statements. It is more like standard programming.
Yep. Life is fair.
"Thanks to this progress, today's air is the cleanest most Americans have ever breathed," said Administrator Mike Leavitt. "Now, EPA is taking up the challenge to accelerate the pace of that progress into the future."
Nobody is denying that work needs to be done, but progress is being made.
A while ago a radio talk show host was complaining about the new FCC regulations. He mentioned something that I completely forgot. Remember the V chip? It was supposed to protect our children from foul content on TV. Every TV made in the last several years has one. His opinion was that almost nobody even knows their TV or VCR can do this, much less how to use it.
When I got home that evening I started playing & found the V chip setting. I censor what my kids watch myself (they are too young to know that I censor them) so the V chip isn't a big deal to me, but I was amazed that this was in my cheap $130 TV.
Anybody here use it? Seems to be a simpler solution than complaining to the federal government if it works.
Why should I (an Ohio tax payer) pay to keep a non-violent criminal in jail? Most jails are so over crowded they parole people early to make space. I don't care if you want to fine spammers, but don't ask me to support them in jail. Jail should be for people who are a danger to society, not for someone who sends junk emails.
I would think that other router vendors would be hurt first. The most common reason I read that people buy non-Cisco equipment is cost. If an open-source router works well, it will eat away at the market share of the cheapest vendors first. This could actually help Cisco fight off the competition.
Lots of people will want to promote public transportation instead of this. While public transportation works in some situations, it is impractical in many areas. Rural & subdivisions typically don't get good public transportation service because a bus will only go downtown.
Where I work I go from one subdivision to another area outside of town. I tried to use the bus to save myself time. I would have had to drive 3 miles to a bus station (there are no sidewalks & heavy traffic so I couldn't easily walk), take a bus downtown, switch to a different bus to take me back out of town, then go to work. Taking the bus would have taken me at least 3 hours to commute each day. Driving takes me about 45 minutes.
The people who I think would benifit the most from this would be the elderly. Lots of senior citizens can't drive and some really shouldn't drive. This would allow them to be much more independent and could delay the eventual move to an assisted living community. With the US population aging, this could be a big deal.
It also solves other problems. Nobody would be convicted of DUIs. Accidents due to bad weather (fog, heavy rain...) would be reduced. No more falling asleep at the wheel. No more drivers crossing the median.
Some interesting things could happen too. Could the car run erands without me? Could the car could take itself to the mechanic for an oil change or maintenance? Could it refuel itself while I'm working? If I order a pizza, could the car pick it up? Could it pick up a kid from school, take him to the dentist, & return him without a parent taking time off from work?
Of course, lots of small communities use tickets to increase their budgets. If the cars don't speed or violate traffic, some budgets would feel the impact. Mechanics would also need to be more technical. Odds are the small one-man mechanic business would suffer because of the cost of the diagnostic & repair equipment.
I got my son a Chaos Tower this Christmas. He is still too young to do it himself, but he loves these kinds of toys. It definitely isn't cheap, but it isn't as mind numbing as a video game either.
I know what I'll be building Christmas morning...
Look at what happened to the Democratic party as a whole.
- They spent more money on Kerry than on anyone else in their history. I even heard the out-spent the Republicans.
- The conservative religious people in 11 states (including Ohio & Nevada) banned gay marriages which helped get out the religious vote. These people are traditionally anti-abortion republicans. Kerry is a well know supporter of abortion.
- The Republicans gained seats in the Senate
- The Republicans gained seats in the House of Representatives.
- The Republicans hold the majority of governor's seats.
- Democratic Senator Tom Daschle was defeated. The first time a party leader was defeated in 52 years.
- The Democratic party spent a good deal of time in court in keeping Nader off of the ballot in some states. If you were a Nader supporting Democrat it was a tough pill to swallow.
The Democratic party was hit hard in this election.
It will be interesting to see what the restructuring effort will be.
For those of you who are new voters, we have one of these election things ever year.
:)
I also hope you realize that in Ohio, we choose people for jury duity by looking at the ranks of registered voters.
My father-in-law owns his own business. I asked him once what he thought about owning your own business. Keep in mind, he's been self employeed for almost 30 years & his business made about $200,000 in net profits last year.
* Getting started will be very tough. With no past work history and little experience, you'll have a difficult time getting a foot in the door. The first few years be very grateful if you break even with expenses. More than likely you'll go into debt. He said the first several years they went to garage sales to buy Christmas gifts for the kids because they couldn't afford to buy things at full price. He also grew about 70% of his own food on his farm just to break even. Starting will be hard.
* You will pay more in taxes being self employed. A lot more. If you thing the government likes to take a bite out of the working class, wait until you are your own business.
* You don't get health care or insurance. You may not think health care is important, but remember: If you don't work, you don't get paid. A serious illness could cost you a contract job. Getting hospitalized for any length of time will put you under a mountain of debt. Good health insurance costs a lot.
* You don't get a matching 401k plan or pension. That may not be important to you now, but it should be. It is never too early to start a retirement fund.
* Unless you eventually hire an employee, your business is only good while you own it. Let me explain. What are you expecting to do in 30+ years when you want to retire? If you are a one-person shop it won't be worth much because your clients deal with you, not your company.
* Get a lawyer. Be careful of what contracts you sign. If a client wants you to sign a contract it is to protect them, not you. You need to protect yourself.
* You may need an accountant. Small businesses are much less likely to be audited than individuals.
* If you are a white male, you don't qualify for any minority contracts or some small business loans. That puts you at a disadvantage for some jobs.
* Be sure what the payment terms are and get everything in writing. If you are going to impose penalties for non-payment be sure your clients know this.
* Be sure your clients know what you are going to do and what you are not going to do. Having delt with contractors you'd be surprised how easily a misunderstanding can happen and how quickly it will turn a relationship sour.
All those negatives aside, he said that he enjoys his own business. He has about 4 months out of the year where he works 6 days a week 16+ hour days but he enjoys the work and he is relatively free the rest of the time. My father-in-law is also to the point where he doesn't need to go looking for new work. He is well established enough that word of mouth brings him more work than he can handle.
Personally, I'd recommend getting another job first. A friend of mine decided to work for a non-profit organization. It gave him a low stress work environment and a really good feeling about his work. He didn't get rich overnight but it does give you something to put on a reference and a small or non-profit company may be more willing to let you do work on the side than any large company. It will also help make business contacts.
Just my $0.02. Good luck.
I have two kids and have had my share of issues. My advice to you is to think simple. Complex is unnecessary.
For when you are at home, get a cheap radio baby monitor. Get one which allows you to both plug-in and has a battery. I would recommend one with really good range & strength. When the baby is sleeping you'll want to be doing stuff outside & around the house.
When you are away get a good baby sitter & pay very very well. A happy baby sitter is a good baby sitter. I wouldn't try to stream video or audio or anything else. Asside from legal issues, you'll go paranoid very quickly. If you trust the baby sitter, they'll call you if there is an issue. If you don't trust the baby sitter you don't have any reason to leave your child with them.
A CD player in the baby room also was nice. We put in a classical CD and it was very soothing. It really helped calm the babies when they were fussy. They also quickly realized that when they heard the music, it was time to sleep. That really helps if you go to a different house (like your family) and expect the baby to sleep.
Another handy toy we got were radio headphones which we could connect to the TV. My first son would wake up at the slightest possible noise and always had trouble sleeping. Our house has a very open design & we couldn't watch a movie without waking him up. We got a cheap pair of headphones and we could relax with a movie after the baby went to sleep.
I would also recommend that, as your kid gets older, to not get them every technological toy. Blocks, Legos, Lincoln Logs & books are good toys. We have a ton of electronic toys designed to teach everything from the alphabet to basic math. They always play the best with low tech toys and learn much more through books. You'll also have a much more peaceful house without the buzzing & beeping.
Finally, enjoy your baby!
The Firefox 1.0 Preview Release has been released. The 1.0 final release won't be out for another month or so, and as such, the version number for this release is 0.10PR. For those who still count in decimal, 0.10 is larger than 0.9, despite what you were taught in school. Check out the Release Notes, the System Requirements, and follow the links below to download a copy now!
How is 0.10 larger than 0.9? The last time I checked, 9 tenths is larger than 1 tenth. Granted my math skills are rusty, but that doesn't sound right.
I'd say that any tax cuts & tariffs don't create jobs. The help give people more money in their pockets. Most people consider this free money despite the fact that they gave it to the government. As the old saying goes, "free money ain't got no home", people spend it. The money they spend goes to businesses. The businesses see an increase in sales, they then increase output, which mean more jobs. The more jobs, the more money people have. The only way the government creates jobs is to increase the payroll of the government. The best thing any government can do is to get out of the way of businesses who try and create jobs.
This isn't a new idea and Bush certainly did't think of it. I believe Regan, JFK (a democrat), & others did this long ago. The results were about the same. A mild boost to help stimulate the economy. I'd bet that if Gore were president he would have done the same type of thing & Republicans would be complaining.
The president can help the economy a little, but he can screw it up majorly. Too high taxes on the extremely wealthy or taxing a certain industry is typically the worst thing to do. The very wealthy can move to another country much more easily than you or I.
Picking particular industries is typically a bad thing to do. A while ago a very high tax was introduced on luxury boats manufactured in the US. As a result people stopped buying them or bought them outside the US. The industry pretty much colapsed in the US and many manufacturing jobs were lost. The net result was that the working class, not the rich, was really hurt.
If you want to know who really controls the economy, talk to Mr. Greenspan. If he were to simply step down the economy would take a serious hit. He is definitely more influential than Bush. Every time he speaks, you get news coverage followed by a news commentary on the impact to the stock market.
As far as debt goes. Yep. We have a big one. However, remember two things.
1.) As a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, the debt isn't nearly as big as it has been in the past. That means we are producing more than ever before. Think of it this way, which is worse. To be in debt $1,000,000 and be producing $2,000,000 worth of goods, or be in debt $1,000 and be producing $1,000 worth of goods?
2.) The worst thing that could ever be done would be to have zero debt. Since the first days of this country, Hamilton realized that a federal debt is a good thing and healthy. The amount that debt can be debated, but this country should have some amount of debt.
I was a volunteer EMT for a few years. I've seen more than a few crashes. One of the nastiest was where a Toyota Corolla going 45-50 mph crossed the center line and hit head on to a small Ford Bronco was going about 35mph. The speed limit was 35 mph.
The Toyota was destroyed. Completely. We air lifted the driver to the hospital. Both legs were broken in numerous places, punctured lungs, both arms were broken, numerous broken ribs, broken hip. He was a train reck and he was wearing a seat belt. I saw the guy about a year later when he came to visit the fire house. He was still walking with severe difficulty and will probably never walk normally again.
The driver of the Bronco was also admitted to the hospital, but wasn't nearly as bad. He was lucky because at the last moment the other car turned slightly to the left and impacted slightly to the left of the driver's area.
The only reason I mention this is because physics is physics. Going into a head on collision at even a relatively slow speed is very dangerous when you strike a car going in the opposite direction. If I remember my physics correctly (and I may not), going head on you add both velocities. The toyota basically hit a brick wall going 80-85 mph. Seat belts or not, that's going to hurt.
We can't completely automate air traffic control systems. We can't even upgrade air traffic control systems made decades ago because of the fear of software bugs.
So let's try to make plan that can fly by itself.
No thanks. I like my pilots well trained, well paid, happy & human.
When the first DOOM was released I had a few friends who said that needing a 486 PC just for a game was insane.
They upgraded after playing the game on someone else's PC.
... we were the game & God was the one with the controls.
Be careful if you have any kind of debt.
If you have any debt which will follow you to another area be careful. The cost of living may be less, but your existing credit cards, school, automobile & other debt isn't adjusted. A not-so-close frend of mine moved across the country & didn't take this into account. Suddenly all her school debt which was painful in one area of the country was crushing in another. This can be especially hurtful with high interest credit cards.
On the other hand, if you have a lot of equity in a house or other property, moving to an area with a lower cost of living can ammount to a nice chunk of change when you sell and pay for the same for less somewhere else.
There are already legacy COBOL programs that are key pieces of many businesses. Some of those are almost 30 years old. Not really exciting code, but still important to many businesses.
Having lived in the Ohio 419 area code, I can confirm that it is indeed a scam. Please send me money.
The PC had a drive controller that allowed for this when I received it. It was probably more valuable than the rest of the PC.
How many home users take tapes off site or have a real DR plan?
Bacula can handle different backup & retention policies quite easily. If you use the write to disk feature, it creates virtual disk volumes so you would manage it as you would any real tape device.
As for the three year on IDE devices, I have one PC with a 5 year old disk, another with a 7 year disk, & yet another with an 11 year old disk (yes I have lots of junk PCs).
I've had drive crashes, but the worst case is that I loose my backup PC. If that happens, all I've lost are my backups. For my home use that isn't terrible. If I had a business I'd probably think differently or invest in raid disk for fault tolerance, but for home use, I have other things I'd rather spend money on.