Seriously? I pay the cable company for my Internet access and they throw in Basic cable for free (which is, plug my TV into the wall and I get basic channels). Depending on where I lived would determine just which channels I'd get. Just a bit south of here, I would get some HD tv. Where I am now, I get all low def but I get the channels I want to watch (Local News and Big Bang Theory).
My ex picked up a cable box and HBO so she could watch True Blood (I think, or Breaking Bad or some other cable show). Now that she's gone, at the end of the 6 month trial, the cable box is going back and I'm going back to low def.
Graduated in '76. My dad was a computer systems officer in The Navy. His words of wisdom were to avoid computers unless you wanted to be the maintenance guy sweeping out the computers:)
Fortunately I didn't listen (or maybe unfortunately) as I'm a Sr Unix Admin now.
Honestly this is the big reason. The freight guys have control. When I took the commuter train to DC, we'd be sidelined because we had to wait on a freight train going by. Freight has a much higher profit than a bunch of folks riding the train to work and less hassle.
Yea, work here is doing that too. We had an open window of time to certify that we were tobacco free so we can save $80 a year (or something) off our insurance. Plus we had to tell the insurance company within 10 days if we smoked after we certified.
And work requires you to walk all the way off property to smoke. So smokers have a little hike to get to the other side of the parking lot to take a smoke break and you're not allowed to sit in your car and smoke while in the work parking lot. You have to get off property. Must be nice to get all the fresh air on the way out and back:)
The bad thing is I had an earlier ID but it was tied to one of the earliest ISPs that went under. Since I couldn't remember my password and the email was invalid, I had to create a new ID (this one). It's still a low number though:)
I found the old email address a couple of years ago and thought I'd send a note in to see if I could reactivate it based on knowing the e-mail but I never received a reply (probably a good thing I guess).
Not to mention gaming (depending on the game) has a specific period of time to play. I have a few quite interesting games on my iPhone and iPad but the more interesting ones can take 15 minutes to 45 minutes to complete a game (Ticket to Ride, Small World, Plague, Inc especially).
So I'm more likely to break out an ebook to read if I'm idle somewhere. I bring my iPad with me when my wife is out shopping so I can sit on the bench and read.
It's one of the things I like about taking a motorcycle out on a trip or even a day ride. Since you can't browse the internet[0] or make phone calls[1], I tend to enjoy the ride free of distractions. After a bit of time, I've flushed all thoughts of work out of my mind and start thinking of other things. It frees my mind to come up with interesting ideas.
It's a problem my wife and I have had. She wants to go out for a hike and spends the time just being in the woods, one with nature. I'm constantly thinking of other things while walking or even things about the hike itself. Especially since I'm a gamer, I'm thinking tactics or even historical information (more like, "I wonder who found this trail, think about what it would have been like to be trailing a mule up into the mountains looking for gold").
The bad part is even when I write them down, when I get home I'm distracted by all the other stuff again so I have several partially started or projects that aren't started at all sitting around the house. I find I have to really force myself to shut out reading Slashdot or any of the other forums I follow in order to get other computer type stuff done.
[John]
[0] There are folks who'll try anything. I've seen pictures of guys on cruisers talking on their cell phones. [1] Technically you can use a bluetooth headset or wired connection to make calls. I've used them and they're fine for accepting them but making a call is a bit more difficult unless you stop first.
Slackware -> Red Hat -> Mandrake. From there I spread out to Ubuntu, OpenBSD (not Linux, I know), more Red Hat, CentOS. I've poked around at others but that's the list of ones I've installed and used for any length of time. I did order the most recent Slackware distro but it must have gotten lost in the e-mail as I never received it:(
For other systems, Irix, HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, and Tru64. Oh and OS X.
It's the same in most places. My wife and I just separated and the laws here say the same thing. Most of my personal gear was off limits (and hers too to be fair) and the only vulnerable stuff was my new gaming gear and guitar gear. And they're not near worth the art she creates.
At 19 in 1976, I was making $300 a month. In 2012 dollars, that's $1,200 a month or $14,400 a year. And that's in the military (E1) so there are additional benefits of medical and housing thrown in. A quick check shows an E1 making $1,300 a month now so not much has changed, just staying with inflation. (And it goes without saying that other tasks add to your pay such as overseas assignments and being married.)
My misunderstanding there. We both didn't go to Indiana. I was just throwing out her stats in comparison to mine which I had due to the recent trip. Had I just stayed home and bought the books on Amazon, I would have saved the motel, tire, and gas costs too. I wouldn't have been able to get the extra swag though.
Sorry you misunderstood or I didn't communicate better. The trip was just me, she didn't go on it. I was just adding in that she gets better mileage on her bike that even I do on mine. When we go on trips, we share the Prius. We went to Jasper/Banff last year in the Prius and had a grand time even camping on the way up and back. And we took a Plane to Prague earlier last year. As I noted farther upthread, we use the appropriate tool for the job. If we're going somewhere together, we take the car. If I'm running an errand or going somewhere on my own, I take the bike most of the time. When I have to, I take the truck, be it for building materials (around the house stuff) or in the event of really bad weather (I don't really like riding when it's too hot out).
Yea, I rode from Colorado to Indiana, then to Oklahoma and back without being stopped once. I was stopped when walking around at GenCon when my badge wasn't facing the right way though. And I was waved at by a state cop sitting in the median (just a little hand wave when I looked over as I went by on my motorcycle; it really was cool) in east Kansas.
I'm actually learning how to play guitar and bass guitar by "playing" Rocksmith. I took lessons for about 18 months to get a foundation and have now played almost 300 arrangements, some as many as 40 times to really learn it (most under 10 though). I find there are actually rewards when playing:)
And I wonder how much of the trimmings would be luxury. It's the same with helmets. You can buy an $80 helmet or a $600 helmet. They're both DOT approved so they both provide the same amount of protection in the event of a crash. But the $600 helmet has a complicated vent system to keep your head cool and a drop down sun visor and plusher foam all of which also add to keeping the noise levels down more than on an $80 helmet.
Folks get big and bigger vehicles because of the all the safety and luxury. It's cool and all to have a HumVee and it's certainly a benefit when you have 6' of snow, but do you really need all that the other 360 days of the year? Get a smaller, more efficient car and stay home for 5 days next time.
Granted, assuming we're both going to the same place. If we both need to go somewhere, we'll take the Prius. But generally she's going to work and I'm going to work and we're going to different places. I go gaming or joy riding in the mountains and she goes to her arts and crafts meeting.
It's a question of using the right tool for the job. Sure, there can be gigantic snow storms. But they don't happen every single day. And for the days where there is a snowfall or rain or what every, the car is available.
I'm a long time rider. There aren't really all that many benefits (as you know). Tires are a lot more expensive and don't last as long (I can get up to 14,000 miles out of a rear tire on the 'busa and that's unusual for a majority of riders). Gear isn't cheap and since you probably have another vehicle (bikes are a luxury), you have extra insurance and property taxes you wouldn't have with just a single car.
Slashdot Mirror
Seriously? I pay the cable company for my Internet access and they throw in Basic cable for free (which is, plug my TV into the wall and I get basic channels). Depending on where I lived would determine just which channels I'd get. Just a bit south of here, I would get some HD tv. Where I am now, I get all low def but I get the channels I want to watch (Local News and Big Bang Theory).
My ex picked up a cable box and HBO so she could watch True Blood (I think, or Breaking Bad or some other cable show). Now that she's gone, at the end of the 6 month trial, the cable box is going back and I'm going back to low def.
[John]
Anonymous Coward for President!
[John]
Must be the Democrats doing that since the Republicans are planning on reducing the debt by selling off Federal land.
[John]
Graduated in '76. My dad was a computer systems officer in The Navy. His words of wisdom were to avoid computers unless you wanted to be the maintenance guy sweeping out the computers :)
Fortunately I didn't listen (or maybe unfortunately) as I'm a Sr Unix Admin now.
[John]
Honestly this is the big reason. The freight guys have control. When I took the commuter train to DC, we'd be sidelined because we had to wait on a freight train going by. Freight has a much higher profit than a bunch of folks riding the train to work and less hassle.
[John]
Yea, work here is doing that too. We had an open window of time to certify that we were tobacco free so we can save $80 a year (or something) off our insurance. Plus we had to tell the insurance company within 10 days if we smoked after we certified.
And work requires you to walk all the way off property to smoke. So smokers have a little hike to get to the other side of the parking lot to take a smoke break and you're not allowed to sit in your car and smoke while in the work parking lot. You have to get off property. Must be nice to get all the fresh air on the way out and back :)
[John]
But I don't want to W8. I want it NOW.
(I actually installed W8 on a Virtual Machine to try it out. Not too pleased with the Mobile interface on my big monitor.)
[John]
The bad thing is I had an earlier ID but it was tied to one of the earliest ISPs that went under. Since I couldn't remember my password and the email was invalid, I had to create a new ID (this one). It's still a low number though :)
I found the old email address a couple of years ago and thought I'd send a note in to see if I could reactivate it based on knowing the e-mail but I never received a reply (probably a good thing I guess).
[John]
Joke's on them. I don't think I've ever been to their site.
[John]
Not to mention gaming (depending on the game) has a specific period of time to play. I have a few quite interesting games on my iPhone and iPad but the more interesting ones can take 15 minutes to 45 minutes to complete a game (Ticket to Ride, Small World, Plague, Inc especially).
So I'm more likely to break out an ebook to read if I'm idle somewhere. I bring my iPad with me when my wife is out shopping so I can sit on the bench and read.
[John]
It's one of the things I like about taking a motorcycle out on a trip or even a day ride. Since you can't browse the internet[0] or make phone calls[1], I tend to enjoy the ride free of distractions. After a bit of time, I've flushed all thoughts of work out of my mind and start thinking of other things. It frees my mind to come up with interesting ideas.
It's a problem my wife and I have had. She wants to go out for a hike and spends the time just being in the woods, one with nature. I'm constantly thinking of other things while walking or even things about the hike itself. Especially since I'm a gamer, I'm thinking tactics or even historical information (more like, "I wonder who found this trail, think about what it would have been like to be trailing a mule up into the mountains looking for gold").
The bad part is even when I write them down, when I get home I'm distracted by all the other stuff again so I have several partially started or projects that aren't started at all sitting around the house. I find I have to really force myself to shut out reading Slashdot or any of the other forums I follow in order to get other computer type stuff done.
[John]
[0] There are folks who'll try anything. I've seen pictures of guys on cruisers talking on their cell phones.
[1] Technically you can use a bluetooth headset or wired connection to make calls. I've used them and they're fine for accepting them but making a call is a bit more difficult unless you stop first.
Slackware -> Red Hat -> Mandrake. From there I spread out to Ubuntu, OpenBSD (not Linux, I know), more Red Hat, CentOS. I've poked around at others but that's the list of ones I've installed and used for any length of time. I did order the most recent Slackware distro but it must have gotten lost in the e-mail as I never received it :(
For other systems, Irix, HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, and Tru64. Oh and OS X.
[John]
I didn't realize Romney posted on Slashdot. Must be planning his next vacation.
[John]
Pretty regularly, almost daily in fact. But it's the crappy AMD drivers, not Windows that's the culprit.
[John]
It's the same in most places. My wife and I just separated and the laws here say the same thing. Most of my personal gear was off limits (and hers too to be fair) and the only vulnerable stuff was my new gaming gear and guitar gear. And they're not near worth the art she creates.
[John]
All at once!
[John]
They didn't actually stop you unless you weren't showing your badge or it got turned around. So yea, you couldn't get in without the badge.
[John]
At 19 in 1976, I was making $300 a month. In 2012 dollars, that's $1,200 a month or $14,400 a year. And that's in the military (E1) so there are additional benefits of medical and housing thrown in. A quick check shows an E1 making $1,300 a month now so not much has changed, just staying with inflation. (And it goes without saying that other tasks add to your pay such as overseas assignments and being married.)
[John]
My misunderstanding there. We both didn't go to Indiana. I was just throwing out her stats in comparison to mine which I had due to the recent trip. Had I just stayed home and bought the books on Amazon, I would have saved the motel, tire, and gas costs too. I wouldn't have been able to get the extra swag though.
[John]
Sorry you misunderstood or I didn't communicate better. The trip was just me, she didn't go on it. I was just adding in that she gets better mileage on her bike that even I do on mine. When we go on trips, we share the Prius. We went to Jasper/Banff last year in the Prius and had a grand time even camping on the way up and back. And we took a Plane to Prague earlier last year. As I noted farther upthread, we use the appropriate tool for the job. If we're going somewhere together, we take the car. If I'm running an errand or going somewhere on my own, I take the bike most of the time. When I have to, I take the truck, be it for building materials (around the house stuff) or in the event of really bad weather (I don't really like riding when it's too hot out).
[John]
Yea, I rode from Colorado to Indiana, then to Oklahoma and back without being stopped once. I was stopped when walking around at GenCon when my badge wasn't facing the right way though. And I was waved at by a state cop sitting in the median (just a little hand wave when I looked over as I went by on my motorcycle; it really was cool) in east Kansas.
[John]
I'm actually learning how to play guitar and bass guitar by "playing" Rocksmith. I took lessons for about 18 months to get a foundation and have now played almost 300 arrangements, some as many as 40 times to really learn it (most under 10 though). I find there are actually rewards when playing :)
[John]
And I wonder how much of the trimmings would be luxury. It's the same with helmets. You can buy an $80 helmet or a $600 helmet. They're both DOT approved so they both provide the same amount of protection in the event of a crash. But the $600 helmet has a complicated vent system to keep your head cool and a drop down sun visor and plusher foam all of which also add to keeping the noise levels down more than on an $80 helmet.
Folks get big and bigger vehicles because of the all the safety and luxury. It's cool and all to have a HumVee and it's certainly a benefit when you have 6' of snow, but do you really need all that the other 360 days of the year? Get a smaller, more efficient car and stay home for 5 days next time.
[John]
Try a Ural some time :D
[John]
Granted, assuming we're both going to the same place. If we both need to go somewhere, we'll take the Prius. But generally she's going to work and I'm going to work and we're going to different places. I go gaming or joy riding in the mountains and she goes to her arts and crafts meeting.
It's a question of using the right tool for the job. Sure, there can be gigantic snow storms. But they don't happen every single day. And for the days where there is a snowfall or rain or what every, the car is available.
I'm a long time rider. There aren't really all that many benefits (as you know). Tires are a lot more expensive and don't last as long (I can get up to 14,000 miles out of a rear tire on the 'busa and that's unusual for a majority of riders). Gear isn't cheap and since you probably have another vehicle (bikes are a luxury), you have extra insurance and property taxes you wouldn't have with just a single car.
But it is a lot more fun :)
[John]