East Mountains outside of Albuquerque. Got the Sandia Mountains (skiing in winter and hiking/mountain biking rest of year) as a buffer between us and Abq but it's only 30 minute drive in to work (one stop sign, 3 traffic lights). Besides the national lab, there's also a lot of DOD work and DOD/DOE contractors around, as well as Intel. And yeah, for a 43 year old raising a kid, living out in the country is great. And it's not like there's nothing to do out here. Daughter has Lego Robotics club one evening, Girl Scouts every other week, 4H once a month, horseback lessons every Saturday and at least one family get together every month. Add to that that we're on 40 acres with new house for just $250k and you can see the stars at night and it's near heaven. Only downside is internet. It's either Comcast or (crappier) DSL. And my iPhone loses AT&T signal at end of our driveway, a 1/4 mile away from the house.
Sure, if we want local restaurants (within 10 minute drive), we only have 2 New Mexican places, a Chinese place, 3 bar and grills, 2 high end fancy cuisine places, a BBQ joint and a pizza place, but there's all of Abq just 1/2 hour away.
Yup, haven't even moved from the 27" 720P tv we picked up back in '05. Maybe next year, we'll move up to a 42" 1080p next year but that depends on a promotion coming through (lousy 1% yearly raise for being 'star performer' sucks ass). Don't see any real reason to pull cash from savings at this point.
I worked at Eckerd College, in St. Pete, back in late '90's/early 00's. Now, this school is right on the inter-coastal waterway (has it's own private beach) and about 2' above sea level. Man, ever try unracking every farking server in a small school and man handling them up through an uncooled attic opening, there to be wrapped in multiple layers of plastic? In the summer?!!!
They finally got funds to build a real data center (instead of using old admin offices on ground level) and now the machines are at least 25' above sea level. Won't do much for a direct hit, as entire spit of land school's on will likely be washed away but luckily, Tampa Bay area seems to mostly lucky, when it comes to hurricanes.
I have a Mac Mini with 1.5 TB drive hanging off of it as my home media server. It also has a EyeTV adapter for DVR duties. I used to have it hooked directly to the tv but that would slow it down when trying to stream files from it to other iTunes computers in the house. Ended up moving server to different location (next to router on shelf) and then putting in a couple ATV1's. Now that the server's not actually playing movie files but just streaming them, it works pretty well. Have had 3 different movies running and the same time and no hiccoughs. It also streams live tv from the EyeTV tuner to our iPhones and iPod touches. Since I'm not really storing any real amount of data on the AppleTV's, a version 2 with no hard drive would would out great for us.
Oh yeah, do my ripping on an iMac and it writes the output directly to a folder with folder actions set to add to iTunes on server.
It's the sociological implications of a generation of humans raised by computer that I find interesting. Growing up, they might find Ren & Stimpy more relevant than Sesame Street.
There's a Niven short story where aliens visit earth and trade knowledge pills with us. Finally, someone gets a telepathy pill (side effect) and realizes humans need to start building an orbital launching device for the aliens. For cultures that can't do this, the aliens cause the sun to go nova and ride the shockwave on to the next likely star.
Along with the fact that a lot of companies, like Apple, don't pay out dividends anymore. Used to be, it wasn't about buy low/sell high for most investors but what kind of steady income could you get from stock ownership.
Slashdot Mirror
What an eccentric performance.
East Mountains outside of Albuquerque. Got the Sandia Mountains (skiing in winter and hiking/mountain biking rest of year) as a buffer between us and Abq but it's only 30 minute drive in to work (one stop sign, 3 traffic lights). Besides the national lab, there's also a lot of DOD work and DOD/DOE contractors around, as well as Intel. And yeah, for a 43 year old raising a kid, living out in the country is great. And it's not like there's nothing to do out here. Daughter has Lego Robotics club one evening, Girl Scouts every other week, 4H once a month, horseback lessons every Saturday and at least one family get together every month. Add to that that we're on 40 acres with new house for just $250k and you can see the stars at night and it's near heaven. Only downside is internet. It's either Comcast or (crappier) DSL. And my iPhone loses AT&T signal at end of our driveway, a 1/4 mile away from the house.
Sure, if we want local restaurants (within 10 minute drive), we only have 2 New Mexican places, a Chinese place, 3 bar and grills, 2 high end fancy cuisine places, a BBQ joint and a pizza place, but there's all of Abq just 1/2 hour away.
Yup, haven't even moved from the 27" 720P tv we picked up back in '05. Maybe next year, we'll move up to a 42" 1080p next year but that depends on a promotion coming through (lousy 1% yearly raise for being 'star performer' sucks ass). Don't see any real reason to pull cash from savings at this point.
Gotta' watch out for them when you're on the trench run.
I worked at Eckerd College, in St. Pete, back in late '90's/early 00's. Now, this school is right on the inter-coastal waterway (has it's own private beach) and about 2' above sea level. Man, ever try unracking every farking server in a small school and man handling them up through an uncooled attic opening, there to be wrapped in multiple layers of plastic? In the summer?!!!
They finally got funds to build a real data center (instead of using old admin offices on ground level) and now the machines are at least 25' above sea level. Won't do much for a direct hit, as entire spit of land school's on will likely be washed away but luckily, Tampa Bay area seems to mostly lucky, when it comes to hurricanes.
Ooh, we're gonna' have some cost overruns here.
A burr coffee grinder
First we build a second Earth...
West takes you In, In takes you East, East takes you Out, Out takes you West.
Trap a coyote, attach it, and let it go?
They already posted the link further up: http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-man-constantly-mentioning-he-doesnt-own-a-tel,429/
I don't even want a tuner or speakers on my tv; just a 42"-52" display. You'd think they'd be cheaper than a tv.
I have a Mac Mini with 1.5 TB drive hanging off of it as my home media server. It also has a EyeTV adapter for DVR duties. I used to have it hooked directly to the tv but that would slow it down when trying to stream files from it to other iTunes computers in the house. Ended up moving server to different location (next to router on shelf) and then putting in a couple ATV1's. Now that the server's not actually playing movie files but just streaming them, it works pretty well. Have had 3 different movies running and the same time and no hiccoughs. It also streams live tv from the EyeTV tuner to our iPhones and iPod touches. Since I'm not really storing any real amount of data on the AppleTV's, a version 2 with no hard drive would would out great for us.
Oh yeah, do my ripping on an iMac and it writes the output directly to a folder with folder actions set to add to iTunes on server.
My parents didn't expose me to the Atari 2600 until after Star Wars came out. Why did they make me wait so long?!!!
James P. Hogan?
Hey, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 is easy to remember.
Years ago, I had 4 14" monitors arraigned in an inverted T formation. Hell Cats Over the Pacific would map to left, right, middle, and up.
Now, I can't take flying/first person/third person games anymore so I just have 4 1920x1200 all side to side. And 16 workspaces.
"My pixels, let me show you them."
It's the sociological implications of a generation of humans raised by computer that I find interesting. Growing up, they might find Ren & Stimpy more relevant than Sesame Street.
That's just because some folks have a hard time pronouncing it.
I thought fantasy was being involved with hot chicks in chain mail bikini's.
Or with hot chicks.
Or chicks.
As a kid, I waited long enough and WHAM! Anonymous, unlimited magic porn right to my bedroom. I love living in the future!
As if any of us are making a hobby out of hooking up bark controlled shotguns to our dogs.
A hobby or a passion?
There's a Niven short story where aliens visit earth and trade knowledge pills with us. Finally, someone gets a telepathy pill (side effect) and realizes humans need to start building an orbital launching device for the aliens. For cultures that can't do this, the aliens cause the sun to go nova and ride the shockwave on to the next likely star.
Or internet relays. I doubt we'll visit other stars as humans but some kind of ai/uploaded human consciousness might make it there.
Along with the fact that a lot of companies, like Apple, don't pay out dividends anymore. Used to be, it wasn't about buy low/sell high for most investors but what kind of steady income could you get from stock ownership.