can you ACTUALLY use someone elses credit/debit card in the US?
Officially, the card companies don't let you (as my wife, a former bill collector, reminds me every time I say "just use my card"). In reality, a lot of places will allow it, if you have ID that implies you're the cardholder's spouse.
Depends *where* in Minnesota. In the city of Minneapolis, you put them out on garbage pickup day, and the next day a special truck shows up to take them away. Same thing with metal/appliances. Now that I live in a suburb, I have to pay extra for that kind of thing. *sigh* But then again, my property taxes are lower.
When I was moving, I took a few loads to the city dump in my pickup truck. They take pretty much anything: as long as you put it in the right pile, they could care less what it is.
Assuming the hardware and software are debugged and ready for production, start with the most recent stuff. Put it (source code, hardware schematics, mechanical drawings, compiler & build tools, etc) into Version Control and label it Release 1.0 Now you have a starting point that consists of everything you need to build this thingie and sell it. That should be your first concern.
It's a lot less important to be able to go back and look at earlier changes (note I said *less* important; not unimportant).
Next, start from the earliest archives and try to find actual requirements/specs. The point here is that now that you can build these things, you need to be able to test them and fix bugs, add features, etc.
After that, you can consider checking through everything else to see if it's worthwhile adding to the Product File, but at this time you may be into diminishing returns. Product requirements and current code are the two most important things to capture out of the total mess of files.
I'll skirt around your question and instead suggest after you get done with helloworld.lang you go straight to something interesting even if it's huge.
Why? Well most 1 day projects aren't very challenging or interesting. But most major projects will have subsystems that you can do in one day, and the project in its entirety can hold your attention long enough that you may eventually complete it, by which time you're an expert in the language.
This is pretty much the approach I had to take to learn C++ and OOP. I started a job knowing only C and the basic ideas of objects, and took on small bits of the C++ project until I could handle larger chunks.
For production, those costs are prohibitive. But for development of a few prototypes so he can shop the product around to manufacturers, there are ways around ASICs and injection molds, etc.
Use a microcontroller with onboard USB, make your enclosures (assuming an off the shelf one won't do) out of castable acrylic or even wood.
That said, I doubt the OP will even get that far...
could steal it from you when you show them the idea.
This whole, "oh no they'll steal my idea" paranoia has got to stop. Look, while occasionally ideas are "stolen," it's more likely that a company you think stole your idea was already working on it. Ideas are worth about a penny in 1 ton lots, i.e., not much. Think about it, you have idea X about business area Y. You go to company Z which is a major player in Y to sell your idea. They say no and release a similar product 3 months later. You scream "omigod, they stole my idea. You bastards!" Don't you think that a company which is highly knowledgeable in that business just maybe had a product identical to yours already in development because they saw the same opportunity you did, only much earlier? Sigh!
OK, enough ranting. I once worked for a company that accepted unsolicited submissions from outside. But these were not ideas, they were *gasp* WORKING PRODUCTS that we could tweak a bit and then turn around and resell. You're looking for money without doing any work. TANSTAAFL. Take your idea, learn about USB, device driver, hardware development, whatever you need. Then build a prototype, get it working. NOW go to businesses to sell it.
You see, a business is going to be a lot more interested the more you lower their risk. Implementing your idea is risky, modifying your existing product to meet the needs of their market is a lot less risky. That's what you're really selling.
Basically, the car is designed that way for a reason
And that reason includes cost. Face it, for all but a select few cars, cost is a constraint. Take a well designed vehicle, make improvements, and you can end up with something substantially better. Especially since only *you* know exactly what you need changed, unlike the manufacturer who has to please thousands of people.
Sure, it's true that some mods can sacrifice reliability for performance, but the genius of the aftermarket is that the owner of the vehicle gets to make that decision. Look, I used to own a 4x4 pickup modified for offroading. Common sense must prevail, especially on a vehicle that can take you places no tow truck would have a chance of getting to! If you install large, heavy mud tires, you need lighter alloy wheel to keep unsprung weight down, you need to be sure your drivetrain can take the additional load that it might not have been designed for, correct final drive ratio, etc..
I think you assume that most people doing this are clueless, when my experience tells me that we were amateurs interested in learning as much as possible.
Right now I have a "stock, well-designed and respected" sports car that cost a lot less than your 911, and as soon as I can spare the money, I plan on some serious modding to get even more power (stock is just under 300hp) out of that engine. Part of my reason for spending less on the car than I could afford was that it would leave me with more money for aftermarket goodies!
you'll have to wait longer than you should for a real answer.
But the wait can be worthwhile. A few years ago (1999 or so) I needed to remove the CV joints on my 4x4's front end for repacking. It was a known difficult job, and even with the detailed instructions I received on one of the forums for that vehicle, it still took me forever. Without that help, though I might have given up in frustration, or ripped the entire front end apart: the clearance between the axle end and some suspension members was less than 1/4" Not a lot when you're wrestling a hunk of steel weighing somewhere close to 100lbs.
I sold that truck with a nice, detailed set of instructions on replacing the timing chain stapled to the factory service manual. Luckily, I never had to actually use them.
What engine is that? I have a 350Z and I'm already salivating over some of the Stillen stuff and trying to figure out how I could justify it without my wife having a heart attack:-)
Manuals are about more than selecting what gear you are in
Like what? I'm serious; I've never driven a car with SMT. All but one of my vehicles has been a stick shift, and I now drive a 6-speed 350Z as my "non-winter vehicle." I have no idea what you mean by that statement: the point of a gearbox, manual or auto, *is* to select the gear you're in.
ps: I'm guessing you live in a warm-weather state. Here in MN, the 350Zs and G35s were selling at dealer invoice at the end of summer cause, like the saleman said, "nobody buys a sports car for Minnesota winters:-)"
any high-quality contractor still considers plastic pipes part of a hack job
Why is that? The house I live in (built 1984) has copper water supply and plastic drain pipe. I *know* it was built by a bunch of cheapasses (we're replacing most stuff we don't like), but I never thought of the plumbing as an issue.
My first thought would be what if that happened here on a -25F night. But the reality is that staying indoors and dressing warm will keep you alive if heat's only off for 8 hours. People living in cold climates typically already have appropriate clothing and behaviors.
But condensation is something I hadn't considered. That could do a number on the walls.
obesity is associated with poverty in rich countries because poor people can't afford HEALTHY food. A MacDonalds hamburger costs a buck
And this proves your point, how? A 5lb bag of potatoes costs a maximum of $2.50. I've seen them onsale for $1.50 or so A 25lb bag of (vitamin-enriched) rice costs around $10. That's *months* of food for the price of a few of those McD burgers. A few months ago, when they were all full, my pantry had a 25lb bag of all-purpose flour, a 25lb bag of bread flour, a 10lb bag of sugar, and a 25lb bag of the aforementioned rice for a total of about $30. I live in America. Food is cheap. Repeat: FOOD IS CHEAP!! 85lbs of staple foods for $30. I love this country.
I could go on, but I think it's apparent that you have no idea how to shop for groceries.
If you don't live in the relative safety of the 'burbs or out in the country, its not all that easy to exercise adequately.
So what you're saying is that the 1 mile walk to the train station I used to take 2x a day when I lived in the city (through some pretty shady neighborhoods, if I say so myself) wasn't enough exercise? Funny, I thought I was in pretty good shape.
As I've mentioned here before, I was raised in NYC by a single mom who didn't even have a high school diploma. I'm well aware of what it's like to not have much money. I was also never malnourished, or lacked for education (natural curiousity and a public library that's a 30 minute walk away can get you far!). I guess I just learned to be more careful with money than some people.
True. But other people seem to forget that Microsoft does not exist in a vacuum. If investors see a sudden drop in income with no end in sight, they'll abandon Microsoft in droves. People don't invest in corporations "because it's there;" they do so to make a good return on that investment.
The company itself may stay afloat and pay its bills, but that doesn't matter to anyone except the employees. MS has always positioned itself as a growth company. That's changing, and they know it.
I don't want to yank my player out of the dash when I want to add songs
I think there's a larger group of people who don't mind this. Including those who don't have a home wireless network, or can't get their car close enough (live in a large apartment complex) for a good signal, or simply those who're already comfortable with plugging the player into the computer to upload songs: iPod owners.
I've always thought the ideal car player would accept an iPod. Yeah, I've seen the connectors you can buy. That's not what I mean. I'm talking about a slot in the car radio that you can insert an iPod and hold it securely. And there'd be controls/display on the dashboard player that have the same functionality as those on the iPod, but optimized for automotive ergonomics, including steering wheel controls.
Same deal for the home: a CD player that can either play CDs, or you stick your iPod into it and have access to all its music. You can now have a larger screen and remote controls.
With this concept, the iPod becomes just a controlled playback device. No need for new interfaces for loading songs: just remove it from the car and do it the regular way.
Why the heck is it taking the auto industry so long to add simple network connectivity to cars?
Because you can count on the fingers of one hand (OK, a few thousand hands:-) the number of people who want this. I've modified vehicles fairly extensively in the past, but I can't think of a single reason why I'd need network connectivity. Let me turn the question around: what would the benefits be?
there is no reason they should dissapear just because something more powerful comes along.
Sure there is: economy of scale. If Atmel can make a device that offers 32 bits at 8 bit prices, then more manufacturers will start using it because they can now do both 32 bit and 8 bit designs with the same part, resulting in a lower cost of inventory, lower design cost since more code and design is reusable and as 8 bits are relegated to only legacy designs, the volume of the 32 bitters rises and the price drops.
I just completed a design with an Atmel chip that used up all of about 100 bytes of Flash ROM. Would it have been a better design if the chip (a 90S1200 8-bitter) had been 32bits? Nope, but if they both cost the same I'd probably have gone with the bigger one just in case the design requirements changed later.
You're right: whiteboard time is expensive. Having chips with much greater resources makes design easier and thus cheaper.
I got my Masters degree in computer science because I read the course descriptions and said "I gotta have some of that."
[Jumping up and down] Me too!! me too!!
Substitute "Software Engineering" for "computer Science" and you'd have the same thought that sent me off to grad school.
It wasn't a means to an end, it was the means itself that interested me. Now that I completed my degree, it's nice that my employer recognized it by giving me a raise & a promotion (I think it was at least in part due to that), but that's icing on the cake. The work itself was fun. Still thinking about that PhD though...
Is it not also true that folks with higher level degrees tend to be put into more focused positions like research or management?
Probably depends on the size of the company. I work for a corporation that has thousands of employees. I have an MS in software, about 4 of my co-workers have PhDs (though not in CS/software engineering) and I'm slightly senior to them. Now we do have research departments that are highly populated by (mostly biochemistry) PhDs, but in the SW dept, there isn't a lot of differentiation by degree (though you won't be hired here without at least a Bachelor's).
I think it would be more accurate to say that people with higher level degrees have more options open to them, esp. at a large company, but they don't necessarily have to be in research or management. It depends on the individual's interests.
I'm saying this in the most polite manner I can, but if you come across in your personal ad the way you did in that post, it's no wonder you had such bad experiences.
I'm no Adonis. Sure, I was in a bit better shape when I was single, but looks really don't mean much, either in meatspace or online and I met more than my share of fun, attractive, lusty women. One of them I couldn't live without, so I married her.
It took me most of my life to figure this out, but dating is all about attitude. Not looks, not money, not fame. Project a confident, self-assured attitude and it's amazing how differently the world responds to you.
You make a number of good points, but this is a really key one. It is hard to pick up on some nuances in online conversation (look at the flaming that goes on here sometimes) and I have had people completely misunderstand things I've said. Also, I once met someone who described herself as "large." I'm not bothered by heavier women, so after a long phone conversation we met at about 5 am (yes, AM...) and she was quite slim and athletic. When I asked her about the description, she replied that she just said that to "filter out most of the idiots."
Tips: Have a good photo. SMILE!!!
Be interesting. If necessary, ask friends what they like about you and put that in your ad.
Look at some other guys' ads to get a feel. I also met a lot of women through telephone dating services (yeah, I know they're mainly booty call lines) for quite a while and the most telling response I ever got to my ad was the woman who said "I'd like to meet you; you don't sound desperate!" It sounded like a strange thing to say, but after I met her she had me call up the same service we used and instead of listening to women's ads, listen to a few mens'. She wasn't kidding! It's no wonder most guys don't get responses, they sound terribly sad and boring and generally unpleasant.
In keeping with the paragraph above: be upbeat. Read your ad and ask yourself if you'd like to meet that person. If possible, have a woman friend (do you have a sister?) read your ad and give feedback.
I tried a bunch of online services starting with Match.com and usually met a few women from each and generally had a good time, but most people I met on Yahoo Personals back when it was a free service. It is possible that it's because that's the only one where I had a picture of myself. Don't sweat it. Women aren't from Venus. They generally want the same thing men do (yes, sex included -- they're just more selective about who they do it with) and are usually pretty interesting to be around.
Online dating is great. I had a few years of fun (discovered it back in '96) and now I'm happily married to a woman I met on Yahoo! Personals years ago. Go for it.
Cost of movies is double the DVD? OK, I know I'm a cheapskate, but even I wouldn't make that claim.
2 movie tickets: $10 ( I only go to matinees: smaller crowds, lower prices. Last movie I went to was a year ago and it was $4.50 each) Parking: $0 -- don't go to movies in the city. When I lived in the city, I just went to movies in the closest suburb: they all have free parking there Snacks: $2 (maybe a blue ICee. all other snacks I take in myself from home. Candy bars fit in your pocket, and I have snuck a large sandwich down the front of my pants and walked into the theater. What usher is going reach for my "package" to verify it's not real?)
Did it even occur to you that you could just *rent* the DVD if all you want to see is deleted scenes?
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Officially, the card companies don't let you (as my wife, a former bill collector, reminds me every time I say "just use my card"). In reality, a lot of places will allow it, if you have ID that implies you're the cardholder's spouse.
Depends *where* in Minnesota. In the city of Minneapolis, you put them out on garbage pickup day, and the next day a special truck shows up to take them away. Same thing with metal/appliances.
Now that I live in a suburb, I have to pay extra for that kind of thing. *sigh* But then again, my property taxes are lower.
When I was moving, I took a few loads to the city dump in my pickup truck. They take pretty much anything: as long as you put it in the right pile, they could care less what it is.
Assuming the hardware and software are debugged and ready for production, start with the most recent stuff. Put it (source code, hardware schematics, mechanical drawings, compiler & build tools, etc) into Version Control and label it Release 1.0 Now you have a starting point that consists of everything you need to build this thingie and sell it. That should be your first concern.
It's a lot less important to be able to go back and look at earlier changes (note I said *less* important; not unimportant).
Next, start from the earliest archives and try to find actual requirements/specs. The point here is that now that you can build these things, you need to be able to test them and fix bugs, add features, etc.
After that, you can consider checking through everything else to see if it's worthwhile adding to the Product File, but at this time you may be into diminishing returns. Product requirements and current code are the two most important things to capture out of the total mess of files.
I'll skirt around your question and instead suggest after you get done with helloworld.lang you go straight to something interesting even if it's huge.
Why? Well most 1 day projects aren't very challenging or interesting. But most major projects will have subsystems that you can do in one day, and the project in its entirety can hold your attention long enough that you may eventually complete it, by which time you're an expert in the language.
This is pretty much the approach I had to take to learn C++ and OOP. I started a job knowing only C and the basic ideas of objects, and took on small bits of the C++ project until I could handle larger chunks.
For production, those costs are prohibitive. But for development of a few prototypes so he can shop the product around to manufacturers, there are ways around ASICs and injection molds, etc.
Use a microcontroller with onboard USB, make your enclosures (assuming an off the shelf one won't do) out of castable acrylic or even wood.
That said, I doubt the OP will even get that far...
This whole, "oh no they'll steal my idea" paranoia has got to stop. Look, while occasionally ideas are "stolen," it's more likely that a company you think stole your idea was already working on it. Ideas are worth about a penny in 1 ton lots, i.e., not much. Think about it, you have idea X about business area Y. You go to company Z which is a major player in Y to sell your idea. They say no and release a similar product 3 months later. You scream "omigod, they stole my idea. You bastards!" Don't you think that a company which is highly knowledgeable in that business just maybe had a product identical to yours already in development because they saw the same opportunity you did, only much earlier? Sigh!
OK, enough ranting.
I once worked for a company that accepted unsolicited submissions from outside. But these were not ideas, they were *gasp* WORKING PRODUCTS that we could tweak a bit and then turn around and resell. You're looking for money without doing any work. TANSTAAFL. Take your idea, learn about USB, device driver, hardware development, whatever you need. Then build a prototype, get it working. NOW go to businesses to sell it.
You see, a business is going to be a lot more interested the more you lower their risk. Implementing your idea is risky, modifying your existing product to meet the needs of their market is a lot less risky. That's what you're really selling.
And that reason includes cost. Face it, for all but a select few cars, cost is a constraint. Take a well designed vehicle, make improvements, and you can end up with something substantially better. Especially since only *you* know exactly what you need changed, unlike the manufacturer who has to please thousands of people.
Sure, it's true that some mods can sacrifice reliability for performance, but the genius of the aftermarket is that the owner of the vehicle gets to make that decision. Look, I used to own a 4x4 pickup modified for offroading. Common sense must prevail, especially on a vehicle that can take you places no tow truck would have a chance of getting to! If you install large, heavy mud tires, you need lighter alloy wheel to keep unsprung weight down, you need to be sure your drivetrain can take the additional load that it might not have been designed for, correct final drive ratio, etc..
I think you assume that most people doing this are clueless, when my experience tells me that we were amateurs interested in learning as much as possible.
Right now I have a "stock, well-designed and respected" sports car that cost a lot less than your 911, and as soon as I can spare the money, I plan on some serious modding to get even more power (stock is just under 300hp) out of that engine. Part of my reason for spending less on the car than I could afford was that it would leave me with more money for aftermarket goodies!
But the wait can be worthwhile. A few years ago (1999 or so) I needed to remove the CV joints on my 4x4's front end for repacking. It was a known difficult job, and even with the detailed instructions I received on one of the forums for that vehicle, it still took me forever. Without that help, though I might have given up in frustration, or ripped the entire front end apart: the clearance between the axle end and some suspension members was less than 1/4" Not a lot when you're wrestling a hunk of steel weighing somewhere close to 100lbs.
I sold that truck with a nice, detailed set of instructions on replacing the timing chain stapled to the factory service manual. Luckily, I never had to actually use them.
What engine is that? I have a 350Z and I'm already salivating over some of the Stillen stuff and trying to figure out how I could justify it without my wife having a heart attack
Like what? I'm serious; I've never driven a car with SMT. All but one of my vehicles has been a stick shift, and I now drive a 6-speed 350Z as my "non-winter vehicle."
I have no idea what you mean by that statement: the point of a gearbox, manual or auto, *is* to select the gear you're in.
ps:
I'm guessing you live in a warm-weather state. Here in MN, the 350Zs and G35s were selling at dealer invoice at the end of summer cause, like the saleman said, "nobody buys a sports car for Minnesota winters
Why is that? The house I live in (built 1984) has copper water supply and plastic drain pipe. I *know* it was built by a bunch of cheapasses (we're replacing most stuff we don't like), but I never thought of the plumbing as an issue.
My first thought would be what if that happened here on a -25F night. But the reality is that staying indoors and dressing warm will keep you alive if heat's only off for 8 hours. People living in cold climates typically already have appropriate clothing and behaviors.
But condensation is something I hadn't considered. That could do a number on the walls.
My immediate concern would be my tropical fish.
And this proves your point, how?
A 5lb bag of potatoes costs a maximum of $2.50. I've seen them onsale for $1.50 or so
A 25lb bag of (vitamin-enriched) rice costs around $10. That's *months* of food for the price of a few of those McD burgers.
A few months ago, when they were all full, my pantry had a 25lb bag of all-purpose flour, a 25lb bag of bread flour, a 10lb bag of sugar, and a 25lb bag of the aforementioned rice for a total of about $30.
I live in America. Food is cheap. Repeat: FOOD IS CHEAP!! 85lbs of staple foods for $30. I love this country.
I could go on, but I think it's apparent that you have no idea how to shop for groceries.
So what you're saying is that the 1 mile walk to the train station I used to take 2x a day when I lived in the city (through some pretty shady neighborhoods, if I say so myself) wasn't enough exercise? Funny, I thought I was in pretty good shape.
As I've mentioned here before, I was raised in NYC by a single mom who didn't even have a high school diploma. I'm well aware of what it's like to not have much money. I was also never malnourished, or lacked for education (natural curiousity and a public library that's a 30 minute walk away can get you far!). I guess I just learned to be more careful with money than some people.
True. But other people seem to forget that Microsoft does not exist in a vacuum. If investors see a sudden drop in income with no end in sight, they'll abandon Microsoft in droves. People don't invest in corporations "because it's there;" they do so to make a good return on that investment.
The company itself may stay afloat and pay its bills, but that doesn't matter to anyone except the employees. MS has always positioned itself as a growth company. That's changing, and they know it.
I think there's a larger group of people who don't mind this. Including those who don't have a home wireless network, or can't get their car close enough (live in a large apartment complex) for a good signal, or simply those who're already comfortable with plugging the player into the computer to upload songs: iPod owners.
I've always thought the ideal car player would accept an iPod. Yeah, I've seen the connectors you can buy. That's not what I mean. I'm talking about a slot in the car radio that you can insert an iPod and hold it securely. And there'd be controls/display on the dashboard player that have the same functionality as those on the iPod, but optimized for automotive ergonomics, including steering wheel controls.
Same deal for the home: a CD player that can either play CDs, or you stick your iPod into it and have access to all its music. You can now have a larger screen and remote controls.
With this concept, the iPod becomes just a controlled playback device. No need for new interfaces for loading songs: just remove it from the car and do it the regular way.
Because you can count on the fingers of one hand (OK, a few thousand hands
Let me turn the question around: what would the benefits be?
So why'd you stop?
Sure there is: economy of scale. If Atmel can make a device that offers 32 bits at 8 bit prices, then more manufacturers will start using it because they can now do both 32 bit and 8 bit designs with the same part, resulting in a lower cost of inventory, lower design cost since more code and design is reusable and as 8 bits are relegated to only legacy designs, the volume of the 32 bitters rises and the price drops.
I just completed a design with an Atmel chip that used up all of about 100 bytes of Flash ROM. Would it have been a better design if the chip (a 90S1200 8-bitter) had been 32bits? Nope, but if they both cost the same I'd probably have gone with the bigger one just in case the design requirements changed later.
You're right: whiteboard time is expensive. Having chips with much greater resources makes design easier and thus cheaper.
[Jumping up and down] Me too!! me too!!
Substitute "Software Engineering" for "computer Science" and you'd have the same thought that sent me off to grad school.
It wasn't a means to an end, it was the means itself that interested me. Now that I completed my degree, it's nice that my employer recognized it by giving me a raise & a promotion (I think it was at least in part due to that), but that's icing on the cake. The work itself was fun.
Still thinking about that PhD though...
Probably depends on the size of the company. I work for a corporation that has thousands of employees. I have an MS in software, about 4 of my co-workers have PhDs (though not in CS/software engineering) and I'm slightly senior to them. Now we do have research departments that are highly populated by (mostly biochemistry) PhDs, but in the SW dept, there isn't a lot of differentiation by degree (though you won't be hired here without at least a Bachelor's).
I think it would be more accurate to say that people with higher level degrees have more options open to them, esp. at a large company, but they don't necessarily have to be in research or management. It depends on the individual's interests.
For someone who claims that /. is a bad place to ask about dating, you gave pretty good advice!
I'm saying this in the most polite manner I can, but if you come across in your personal ad the way you did in that post, it's no wonder you had such bad experiences.
I'm no Adonis. Sure, I was in a bit better shape when I was single, but looks really don't mean much, either in meatspace or online and I met more than my share of fun, attractive, lusty women. One of them I couldn't live without, so I married her.
It took me most of my life to figure this out, but dating is all about attitude. Not looks, not money, not fame. Project a confident, self-assured attitude and it's amazing how differently the world responds to you.
You make a number of good points, but this is a really key one. It is hard to pick up on some nuances in online conversation (look at the flaming that goes on here sometimes) and I have had people completely misunderstand things I've said.
Also, I once met someone who described herself as "large." I'm not bothered by heavier women, so after a long phone conversation we met at about 5 am (yes, AM...) and she was quite slim and athletic. When I asked her about the description, she replied that she just said that to "filter out most of the idiots."
Tips:
Have a good photo. SMILE!!!
Be interesting. If necessary, ask friends what they like about you and put that in your ad.
Look at some other guys' ads to get a feel. I also met a lot of women through telephone dating services (yeah, I know they're mainly booty call lines) for quite a while and the most telling response I ever got to my ad was the woman who said "I'd like to meet you; you don't sound desperate!" It sounded like a strange thing to say, but after I met her she had me call up the same service we used and instead of listening to women's ads, listen to a few mens'. She wasn't kidding! It's no wonder most guys don't get responses, they sound terribly sad and boring and generally unpleasant.
In keeping with the paragraph above: be upbeat. Read your ad and ask yourself if you'd like to meet that person. If possible, have a woman friend (do you have a sister?) read your ad and give feedback.
I tried a bunch of online services starting with Match.com and usually met a few women from each and generally had a good time, but most people I met on Yahoo Personals back when it was a free service. It is possible that it's because that's the only one where I had a picture of myself.
Don't sweat it. Women aren't from Venus. They generally want the same thing men do (yes, sex included -- they're just more selective about who they do it with) and are usually pretty interesting to be around.
Online dating is great. I had a few years of fun (discovered it back in '96) and now I'm happily married to a woman I met on Yahoo! Personals years ago. Go for it.
Cost of movies is double the DVD? OK, I know I'm a cheapskate, but even I wouldn't make that claim.
2 movie tickets: $10 ( I only go to matinees: smaller crowds, lower prices. Last movie I went to was a year ago and it was $4.50 each)
Parking: $0 -- don't go to movies in the city. When I lived in the city, I just went to movies in the closest suburb: they all have free parking there
Snacks: $2 (maybe a blue ICee. all other snacks I take in myself from home. Candy bars fit in your pocket, and I have snuck a large sandwich down the front of my pants and walked into the theater. What usher is going reach for my "package" to verify it's not real?)
Did it even occur to you that you could just *rent* the DVD if all you want to see is deleted scenes?
Kids today, sheesh!
One word: eBay.
Although I tried selling my Teltone Telephone Line Simulator ($200 and it has 2 lines and Caller ID!) without any luck