I have to give this a qualified yes. If only because there are 5 different cell providers to choose from in my area, that I know of. I can freely switch back and forth when one offers a better deal. (Though the deal may lock me in for a year, and there are hasstles with switching) I only switched once, but since then I have changed my plan a couple times as compitition drove better rate plans.
However a cell phone may not get reception in your home, and there is nothing you can do about it. If your landline doesn't work at home you call the phone company and tell them to fix their lines and they will. (At least in theory, getting them to do something may be a different matter, but overall your luck will be better)
The big advantage of a cell phone is that it works even when you are not home. Sure most of the time you don't need this, and shouldn't use it. Once in a while though it is nice to have that phone. Emergencies, and non-emergencies that you would still like to know about.
Transmission lines are not a problem. My power comes mostly from North Dakota, where my power coop partially owns a few coal power plants. They then transmit all that power a few hundred miles to Minneapolis. I'd guess that this is a better way to transmit that energy than what a power company not far from me does: take in about 20 TRAINS of coal per day, every day to run a coal plant about 15 miles from my house. I don't know how to compare the energy used to move a train compared to what can be extracted from coal, but the entire line loss from my house to the generator is under 5% according to the coop.
Niether is as good as a third utility that runs a nuculear plant just 5 miles from my house, but if you are going to run coal I'd prefer it being near the mines. (Interestingly enough most people who live nearyby complain about the smoke from the nuke plant and then point to the coal plant as proof of how bad it is)
In conclusion: Nukeuclear plants are good neighbors, but transmission of power from point a to point b is not an issue.
Your best guess. Seriously, I bought a house because it "felt right". I had worked the same job for a few years, and my buddie that I rented from needed more space at home. So I bought a house and moved out. I love living alone, nobody complains about my mandolin, I can walk in nude from the shower to my bedroom, instead of needing to carry a change of clothes to the shower. (My buddie had a wife and kid, I know some are renting from more relaxed places). That pond out back with the Blue Heron on it is MINE, and MINE ONLY. Keep off. I'm not that anal about it, but I have the right to be. Than my job went to India 13 months latter. I couldn't have known. I'm still making ends meet though, it means I work 60+ hour weeks doing something that I will never be as good at as I am programing. I can do it though, and I'd have had to do it anyway, though if I was renting I might get by on 50 hour weeks.
Make the best guess you can of when it is right for you. Often people get married about the same time. Didn't happen that way for me, but for many it will. (And if you have two incomes like many couples you can spread the risk out by not working for the same company so you won't both loose youre job at once) You can also take roommates if things don't work out. I've considered it, but in the end I like being livinig alone enough that I'd rather work 60 hour weeks than have a roommate.
Also, watch the housing market. When the market hits bottom is obviously a good time to buy, but you can't know that. When rates hit the bottom is also a good time to buy since you get the same rate for 30 years. (Most people though 7% 2 years ago was bottom, and now rates are considerably below that)
Warning, the above poster gave a lot of bad advice. Not all of it was bad, but some of it.
First of all, it is a fact that young people can risk more. Risk is NOT defined as the odds that you will lose all your money. Risk is defined as the odds that your money will grow any given year. Bonds are considered unrisky because you always know for any given bond exactly how much you will have in the end. When you buy a bond paying 10% you pay $1000, and get $100 every year until it "matures" and then get $1100. ($1000 you invested, but the last $100 interest) On a 10 year bond that means you have $2000 from your $1000 investment. Unfortunatly bonds are now paying a lot less than 10%, and historicly bonds rarely paid more. The only risk is that the company might to bankrupt.
Stocks by contrast don't have the gaurentied amount. If you put in $1000, the first year you might end up with $800, you might end up with $1200. That is what they mean by risk. Historicly stocks have gone up by more than 10% a year, but only when averaged over 20 year periods. So your risks with stocks is not knowing what your return is. However the bonus is you normally get more in the end. Note too that the 10% I refered to in the case of stocks is compounded rate of return, while bonds are simple interest (in most cases).
For an old person looking to retire, having to money in bonds with good returns every year is a good way to make planning easier since a big drop in the stock market (last 3 years for example) won't mean that suddenly you no longer have enough money to retire. For a young person you are better off riding out any storms that develop, hoping that when retirement is a possibility you have more money to work with. (meaning you either retire sooner, or latter and live a richer life, a risk itself)
Mind you I don't doupt that your finincial planner was an idiot looking to soak you for all the money you could get. However that fact doesn't change that your knoweldge of money managemnt is flawed too. I suggest you start manageing your money yourself, and compare how you do to the S&P500.
Peter Lynch managed to beat the market most of the years he ran mutual funds. There are a few other star managers who have managed similear feats. Many of the maganers who don't beat the average don't because their funds can't invest in anything. If utilities are down this year and a fund that invests only in utilities beats the market you should hang the fund manager for fraud. (Either the results are fiction, or they are real, but the money wasn't in utilities).
That said, beware of funds that claim a lot of performance one year. Many manage some gimics to get good results one year, at the expense of results latter. Most funds do not beat the market. Most don't even beat the simple index they most closely matches how they should invest. (The S&P index is the most common benchmark, but it doesn't apply to small cap stocks for instance)
Beware of fees. Those in the financial world are really good at charging you money. NEVER go to a advisor who offers you free advice, you will pay for it dearly! Get a "fee-only" advisor if you want professional help. The "no fee" ones still get paid, but they get the money elsewhere, often by taking 5% of whatever you invest. That is a lot of money, and those who charge it better make that money up faster than the fee-only advisor. They won't though. Watch the yearly fees. Anything over 1% is criminal in my opinion. (again in a few cases it really takes that much to achive results and returns outweight it. I haven't actually seen such a case though) I see no reason for any mutual fund to need more than.9% as a year fee, and the best (index) funds come in at.3-.4%
Finiall, even though funds are where all the action is, don't be afraid to invest a little money into "hot tips" that you have done your homework on. Not easy, and for most people this should be a small amount of the money you invest, but it can be fun, and nothing encourages paying attention to how a company is doing like owning it. And as an owner you can vote on what the company does. Your small voice might make a difference.
No, you and 10 buddies each carry one civilian GPS, and stick togather. I don't know how the army operates, but I would guess as more realistic is that each person of 4 in a humve carries 3 (total 12). They have to stick togather anyway because that is their transportation.
IThe driver should not have a GPS while driving anyway, and you really want a guy looking for possibal ambush, so of the 4 people, 2 already have important things to do that do not involve a GPS. That leaves a navigator (who needs a GPS), and one other person who may or may not need one.
Wait a minute, they are in the military, on a march across the desert. (or they were, in theory they are now getting ready for the march back...) Knowing where my company was when I left it isn't much help if the company is on the move. If I'm not expect to be away they will search for me, but if my orders are "Go 3 miles off track to x, do y, and then meet up with us latter.", then I need to find not where they are or were but the best way to get where they will be when it is time to meet up.
People seem to think that passwords are always one person one password. In the case of high security that is true. For most non-military applications giving someone else your password is easier than creating a new account, and should be just as safe.
Case one: college job as fast food manager. 2am while doing closing books I discovered a problem that I didn't have access to fix. Call my boss (he had done some upgrades and forgot a step, tech support couldn't have helped as they don't get root equivelent, the boss should take care of anything that needs that access), and he gave me his password instead of driving in to fix it himself. Sure I shouldn't have gotten that technically, but I'm trusted not to abuse it.
Case two: same job, this time a manager in a different store got married, and everyone wanted to attend. I fill in for the night. They could create me an account on the computer, but why go through that effort for one night, I got the password of someone else there, and was left to do things.
In both of the above situations I was also trusted with the safe combonation, so if I did want to do something evil I had much better means of it than some computer access.
Note, there were some enforced security policies in place that make the above violaions not quite as bad as they sound. I won't disucess them though. Security through obsecurity is no security, but in many situations actualy mathamatical (provable) security is not possibal.
Part of buying a product is making sure that it will fit your needs. When you buy a product for external customers to interact with, many of whom are likely to want to do so automaticly, then you need to make sure that your requirements include the ability for customers to automatic their processes using whatever means they want.
Saying that licenses are a restriction is a cop out. If this was data only intended for use internall to UPS, then not being open source compatable is something they need to decide if they care about, and if not, they deal with. However this is intended for use external to UPS, and therefore to say that open source can't be supported just shows that they failed specify requriements.
To be useful it needs to have the following, which it lacks, or at least doesn't claim to have. (I don't need any compensation for these ideas, being able to get them is enough)
It needs to figgure out what machines I have in my enertainment system and interface to them automaticly. I don't want to have to point a remote at it and program each button as that takes too long. I don't even want to have to figgure out if I have a RCA model 364526z or 36532f. It needs to figgure that out. (I'll accept some trail, that is "we have have narrowed your TV down to one of 3 choices, please indicate when the TV goes on)
It needs act as a game controller expander. I have a PS/2, a NES64, and a Atari 2600 connected to my tv (not really, but I wish). It needs to have something that will plug into each machine's controler interface, and then use the USB controlers pluged into this thing to control whichever system I happen to play. Optional modules for each are fine so long as they are not too expensive.
It needs to display on the TV. Sure it has a built in screen, but when I connect my USB keychain with my photo album to the machine, I really want to show the picuters to my family on the big TV, not the little remote screen. (Even though the remote in theory might have better resolution it is smaller)
Since it already runs linux, include xlincity, freeciv, and any other good linux games. (see above about displaying on the TV...)
And finially it must be easy to use. At $1700 I can buy a lot of compuer. I've considered it in fact, and other than not having a good remote ability I think I can do most of what I want with a custom linux box a lot cheaper.
Have you payed attendtion to recyceling costs? Most curbside recyceling programs are lossing money because resources are not worth the effort to collect. In theory we can mine landfills, and I expect in the future we will. Today Almost nothing is worth the cost extract it.
Well, about 1/3rd of the Spam I recieve is in a font that Pine can't display on an Xterm. I'm guessing Asia is the origion and target of it because few people would have use for it. (OTOH, maybe outlook displays it fine, and it is english, I wouldn't know) Another 5% (estimate) is in a non-english language. Unlikely to target Americans where english is the dominate language and many people speak nothing else.
Nearly all the rest is illegal in someway. Perscription medication, financial offers, online sex, and enlargements. Those who really want to offer such are likely to want to be outside of the US because it is harder to get caught. Medications have tricky advertising laws. Banks must be licensed in my state to do buisness with me. Sex and enlargements violate "community standards" which the supream court has sort of stated is subject to restrictions despite the first amendment, and since I know kids get this spam I know they are breaking state laws prohibiting kids from seeing this.
Note that I'm making a claim on the origion, not the target. I'll Grant that 60% of all spam is targeted at US residents. The origion in the US seems much less likely.
I'm still waiting for the day when I can go to Best Buy and get a harddrive with more storage than the number of elimentery particals in the universe. I figgure at current rates that is only about 60 years away.
One of my friends bought a robotic massage chair a couple years ago. They have been in furniture stores for a while now. About $250 more than the normal chair (or double the price of a recliner) and it works great.
Most people don't have them, and a few don't like them. They will come though because most people love it, at least once in a while.
Note that it appears the chair in the japanise ad was more advanced, but since I can't read the text I can't really be sure.
I've most been in cubes all my short work life, and where is what I found worked. Some of this is a repeat of what others have said.
Furst tellecomute. Even if you have an office learn to tellecomute. Nothing stops interuptions when you are on a deadline like not being there (and your boss can tell others you are sick to encourage people not to call you at home). Short of a major customer having a critical problem isolated to your code you won't be interupted. Sell it to upper management as a solution for bad weather days, or enviormental awareness. (There is no reason to go to the office 5 days a week. 1 or 2 is plenty for a programer, think of the enivormental benifits for 1/2 the car traffic)
Make sure there is a white board in every cube. And not a little one either. I had a 4x4 one in my cube, and sometimes I ran out of space. A lot of algorithms are more easially planed on a whiteboard than on a small piece of paper. We had "war rooms" that others mentioned, but they were never used because the white board in the implimenters cube wasn't subject to erasure by the next team to need a whiteboard.
Insteard of a guest chair we had two "pedistools", which were fileing cabinets with a cushion on top. Not comfortable for all day use, but a guest could spend a few hours in your cube with one, so you could make some real plans. (See whiteboards above) Get these instead of the normal cube supplied drawers.
Make sure there is enough other storage. Some people will need it, some won't, but make sure those who need it have it.
Keybaord trays: don't fake them. We decided that instead of a $400 keybaord tray to substitution $200 keyboard shelves. A freestanding tray replacement that sat in front of the desk, and in theory could be moved away. Out of 100 cubes with them install, I recall 3 people used them, and the rest were sent to storage somewhere else. (about 10 more were latter given to cube users in other areas who wanted them). The only people who seemed to find them useful had 3 keybaords in their office. (Normally a PC, Xterminal, and a 3270) Keyboard trays would not have been a waste. (OTOH those who used the shelves likely prefered them as an ideal way to get the extra keyboards out of the way)
Lighting: for me task lighing only. For others overheard lights work good. It is easy to remove tubes, just make sure the miantance guys know you are allowed to do this. Have some hall "night lights" that are always on so it doens't get too dark. Put some task lights in every cube. Make sure there is natural light avaibale somewhere, windows in the break room, or at least sky lights. Something so we can see the sun. Even though I was 100 feet from the nearest window I could tell when a storm was comming by the changes in the light.
Have a simple plant policy and enoucrage it. Basicly if nobody is alergic to the plant than you should have it. (My first cube mate was deathly alergic to just about everything, so blooming plants were out in the area, but normal plants were still allowed) There will always be a few green thumbs in the area, install grow lights for them. It brightens the room up for the rest of us to have some real green.
Last, because last is remembered best: Get a GOOD chair. The typical cube worker will spend most of the day sitting on one chair in their cube. Dont' let management skimp here. Make it clear that if there is ever a choice that a good chair is more important than any other demand! Your body will thank you. (though a good chair doesn't substitute for exercise)
Sorry Mr. Mundie, but Apache is NOT a clone of comercial software as you tried to claim. Apache is a fork (clone) of the Origional NCSA web server, which was NOT commercial. (open source, but I'm not sure exactly what license was used so it might not meet the exact legal definition of Open Source). IIS, and the other comercial servers are clones of an open source webserver.
Of course this is all an accidemic exercise, but don't try to claim some high ground where Apachee has it.
Right, you don't have to file, if you don't owe anything. However if the IRS owes you, then you have to file to get your money back.
I'ave always felt that taxes should be due, in cash on election day. (Not a poll tax, even if you decide not to vote you still have to pay, to avoid crooks I suppose a check will have to do, but with substantial penilties for bounded checks) But few people actually save money, so this is seen as unworkable. (I personall belive that after a couple times of going to jail for not paying taxes on time people will learn to save)
That is a hasstle. Not for me, once I have it set up, but for those who want to contact me. I'm looking for a job now, I can't afford to let an otherwise good job slide by because whoever was trying to contact me has better things to do than figgure out what magic is needed to make my email work. There are many more job hunters than jobs right now, so they won't take the time to email me if I don't respond back right away.
I also question your notspam@example.com solution. Someday that will get onto the spammers lists, and then you have spam there too.
Try $40/month. Serious, that would be my actual charge for unlimited local calling. Sure the basic charge is less, but then there are taxes and fees that I have to pay. My cell phone cost the same amount, and my calling area isn't just my metropolitan area, but the entire US. Sure in theory I have limited minutes, but in paractce I've never come close to the amount of time I'm given. (most months I'd be better off on a cheaper plan, but I don't know which in advance so I stay on the one that is always plenty)
But 1 false positive is unacceptable
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WLANs As Spam Conduit
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· Score: 2, Informative
If I get even one false positive, it means I have to manually wade through the 35 SPAM (actual count today) messages I got today, just incase one was a false positive. In effect the spam matching effort is wasted because I still have to look at all the spam. I want spam elimination software to get rid of the spam so I can go on with my life without paying attention to it. When I have to pay attention to it at all, that means that the software is worthless.
False negatives are not as bad. If I can get rid of all the breast enhancement ads (without losing the gossip about some aunt who got enhancements) my life would be better. But if there is a flase match what is the point?
Email is a tool. I get messages every day that I need to read. Most people don't call me, and I used to encourage that as I would prefer to communicate over email. (almost as fast as a phone, but there is a chance to take those stupid things I tend to say back) Spam has made email nearly useless for general communication though.
Working at home has some disadvantages. Make sure you watch the office politics and the rumor mill. This will be harder than ever because you can't take coffee or a smoke break with people. Try to find someone local to feed you the gossip. Most of it you can ignore, some you MUST ignore, but there is a little bit that not knowing can make or break you.
other than that, what you do is up to you. You have a lot more flexability, but don't abuse it. You should read less/. than if you were at the office, just because at the office someone could pop in which will make your paranoid enough to (hopefully) keep it reasonable. You can now have the cat on your lap, which can make work a lot more comfotable, or distract you from working.
I find that I have no need for op-code compatability, so long as I have source code compatability. GCC can take the same source file, and make it run on nearly any processor. (Any reasonable processor really, but if I don't qualify it someone will ask about 6502 support)
I care about how fast the processor is running my apps. x86, Sparc, MIPS, alpha, come to mind as reasonable processors to consider, all will meet my needs just fine.
Well, there is an exception, I have wine installed so in theory I can run some programs only if I have binary compatability. In practice I rarely do that. Rarely enough that the few times I want to do it I can just ssh over to an x86 machine that I can pick up dirt cheap, and magicly the program will run on my other machine. (And most people won't know that I had to do a little magic to make it work)
Re:RTFa and you find an Intel PR Rant
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The Centronics port sucks as a printer interface. It is not two-way, and even though two-way standards exists, they are not well supported. Odds are your parrell printer doesn't make use of that ability. So you end up with "Print one FIRE" errors because the printer isn't out of paper, and it is online, but there is still a problem that it wants to notify you about. USB makes is easy (at least in theory, we all know that practice isn't often the same) to send whatever error you want, so you can say things like "The printer is out of red ink", or "There is a paper jam at the output tray".
USB as a keyboard/mouse interface is nice because you can have more than one of each with USB, which means for the few people who want that, they can do it. (In other words I agree that there is no compelling reason to replace PS/2 ports, but from a cost point of view you can save a couple ports and a little chip space if you skip them)
YEah, execpt that I'm not on the toilet with a dirty rear end and nothing to clean it with. I try to be in the habbit of checking before I sit down at a public toilet, but in most cases I forget. At home this is no problem because I keep spare rolls in the bathroom for this type of emergency.
At a restaruant I have to get up, put my clothes on, find someone who works there, get them to put in a fresh roll (hopefully they don't think they are too busy with something else), and then after that I can clean up. Of course by this time I'm no longer fit to be in public, so I go straight home to shower. (Actually I'm not fit to ask the guy behind the counter to change the roll either, so what really happens is I live it for the next person to repeat the process.
The University of Minnesota has the same tunnels, and used to have the same "nobody allowed in the tunnels policy". Then someone realised that it gets cold in Minnesota, and these tunnels run between most of the buildings, so they opened them up. Most people still don't use them, often to get from twon bulding 100 feet apart you needed to travel 700 feet or more. Still I did use them on the coldest days when it wasn't too far out of my way to do so, and was surprized how few people were down there.
Mind you the tunnels are official open, but they are not well labeled, often you have to go through a door where they scratched out the "private" sign. If you didn't know that you are now allowed in them you would think it is an off limits area. (I don't know why that would stop a student, but appearently it did) There also were few signs, so you had to know where they led. More than once I've seen someone ask a maintance person where the tunnel to some building was only to find they were in the building.
Slashdot Mirror
I have to give this a qualified yes. If only because there are 5 different cell providers to choose from in my area, that I know of. I can freely switch back and forth when one offers a better deal. (Though the deal may lock me in for a year, and there are hasstles with switching) I only switched once, but since then I have changed my plan a couple times as compitition drove better rate plans.
However a cell phone may not get reception in your home, and there is nothing you can do about it. If your landline doesn't work at home you call the phone company and tell them to fix their lines and they will. (At least in theory, getting them to do something may be a different matter, but overall your luck will be better)
The big advantage of a cell phone is that it works even when you are not home. Sure most of the time you don't need this, and shouldn't use it. Once in a while though it is nice to have that phone. Emergencies, and non-emergencies that you would still like to know about.
Transmission lines are not a problem. My power comes mostly from North Dakota, where my power coop partially owns a few coal power plants. They then transmit all that power a few hundred miles to Minneapolis. I'd guess that this is a better way to transmit that energy than what a power company not far from me does: take in about 20 TRAINS of coal per day, every day to run a coal plant about 15 miles from my house. I don't know how to compare the energy used to move a train compared to what can be extracted from coal, but the entire line loss from my house to the generator is under 5% according to the coop.
Niether is as good as a third utility that runs a nuculear plant just 5 miles from my house, but if you are going to run coal I'd prefer it being near the mines. (Interestingly enough most people who live nearyby complain about the smoke from the nuke plant and then point to the coal plant as proof of how bad it is)
In conclusion: Nukeuclear plants are good neighbors, but transmission of power from point a to point b is not an issue.
Your best guess. Seriously, I bought a house because it "felt right". I had worked the same job for a few years, and my buddie that I rented from needed more space at home. So I bought a house and moved out. I love living alone, nobody complains about my mandolin, I can walk in nude from the shower to my bedroom, instead of needing to carry a change of clothes to the shower. (My buddie had a wife and kid, I know some are renting from more relaxed places). That pond out back with the Blue Heron on it is MINE, and MINE ONLY. Keep off. I'm not that anal about it, but I have the right to be. Than my job went to India 13 months latter. I couldn't have known. I'm still making ends meet though, it means I work 60+ hour weeks doing something that I will never be as good at as I am programing. I can do it though, and I'd have had to do it anyway, though if I was renting I might get by on 50 hour weeks.
Make the best guess you can of when it is right for you. Often people get married about the same time. Didn't happen that way for me, but for many it will. (And if you have two incomes like many couples you can spread the risk out by not working for the same company so you won't both loose youre job at once) You can also take roommates if things don't work out. I've considered it, but in the end I like being livinig alone enough that I'd rather work 60 hour weeks than have a roommate.
Also, watch the housing market. When the market hits bottom is obviously a good time to buy, but you can't know that. When rates hit the bottom is also a good time to buy since you get the same rate for 30 years. (Most people though 7% 2 years ago was bottom, and now rates are considerably below that)
In the end though just do your best
Warning, the above poster gave a lot of bad advice. Not all of it was bad, but some of it.
First of all, it is a fact that young people can risk more. Risk is NOT defined as the odds that you will lose all your money. Risk is defined as the odds that your money will grow any given year. Bonds are considered unrisky because you always know for any given bond exactly how much you will have in the end. When you buy a bond paying 10% you pay $1000, and get $100 every year until it "matures" and then get $1100. ($1000 you invested, but the last $100 interest) On a 10 year bond that means you have $2000 from your $1000 investment. Unfortunatly bonds are now paying a lot less than 10%, and historicly bonds rarely paid more. The only risk is that the company might to bankrupt.
Stocks by contrast don't have the gaurentied amount. If you put in $1000, the first year you might end up with $800, you might end up with $1200. That is what they mean by risk. Historicly stocks have gone up by more than 10% a year, but only when averaged over 20 year periods. So your risks with stocks is not knowing what your return is. However the bonus is you normally get more in the end. Note too that the 10% I refered to in the case of stocks is compounded rate of return, while bonds are simple interest (in most cases).
For an old person looking to retire, having to money in bonds with good returns every year is a good way to make planning easier since a big drop in the stock market (last 3 years for example) won't mean that suddenly you no longer have enough money to retire. For a young person you are better off riding out any storms that develop, hoping that when retirement is a possibility you have more money to work with. (meaning you either retire sooner, or latter and live a richer life, a risk itself)
Mind you I don't doupt that your finincial planner was an idiot looking to soak you for all the money you could get. However that fact doesn't change that your knoweldge of money managemnt is flawed too. I suggest you start manageing your money yourself, and compare how you do to the S&P500.
Peter Lynch managed to beat the market most of the years he ran mutual funds. There are a few other star managers who have managed similear feats. Many of the maganers who don't beat the average don't because their funds can't invest in anything. If utilities are down this year and a fund that invests only in utilities beats the market you should hang the fund manager for fraud. (Either the results are fiction, or they are real, but the money wasn't in utilities).
That said, beware of funds that claim a lot of performance one year. Many manage some gimics to get good results one year, at the expense of results latter. Most funds do not beat the market. Most don't even beat the simple index they most closely matches how they should invest. (The S&P index is the most common benchmark, but it doesn't apply to small cap stocks for instance)
Beware of fees. Those in the financial world are really good at charging you money. NEVER go to a advisor who offers you free advice, you will pay for it dearly! Get a "fee-only" advisor if you want professional help. The "no fee" ones still get paid, but they get the money elsewhere, often by taking 5% of whatever you invest. That is a lot of money, and those who charge it better make that money up faster than the fee-only advisor. They won't though. Watch the yearly fees. Anything over 1% is criminal in my opinion. (again in a few cases it really takes that much to achive results and returns outweight it. I haven't actually seen such a case though) I see no reason for any mutual fund to need more than .9% as a year fee, and the best (index) funds come in at .3-.4%
Finiall, even though funds are where all the action is, don't be afraid to invest a little money into "hot tips" that you have done your homework on. Not easy, and for most people this should be a small amount of the money you invest, but it can be fun, and nothing encourages paying attention to how a company is doing like owning it. And as an owner you can vote on what the company does. Your small voice might make a difference.
No, you and 10 buddies each carry one civilian GPS, and stick togather. I don't know how the army operates, but I would guess as more realistic is that each person of 4 in a humve carries 3 (total 12). They have to stick togather anyway because that is their transportation.
IThe driver should not have a GPS while driving anyway, and you really want a guy looking for possibal ambush, so of the 4 people, 2 already have important things to do that do not involve a GPS. That leaves a navigator (who needs a GPS), and one other person who may or may not need one.
Wait a minute, they are in the military, on a march across the desert. (or they were, in theory they are now getting ready for the march back...) Knowing where my company was when I left it isn't much help if the company is on the move. If I'm not expect to be away they will search for me, but if my orders are "Go 3 miles off track to x, do y, and then meet up with us latter.", then I need to find not where they are or were but the best way to get where they will be when it is time to meet up.
People seem to think that passwords are always one person one password. In the case of high security that is true. For most non-military applications giving someone else your password is easier than creating a new account, and should be just as safe.
Case one: college job as fast food manager. 2am while doing closing books I discovered a problem that I didn't have access to fix. Call my boss (he had done some upgrades and forgot a step, tech support couldn't have helped as they don't get root equivelent, the boss should take care of anything that needs that access), and he gave me his password instead of driving in to fix it himself. Sure I shouldn't have gotten that technically, but I'm trusted not to abuse it.
Case two: same job, this time a manager in a different store got married, and everyone wanted to attend. I fill in for the night. They could create me an account on the computer, but why go through that effort for one night, I got the password of someone else there, and was left to do things.
In both of the above situations I was also trusted with the safe combonation, so if I did want to do something evil I had much better means of it than some computer access.
Note, there were some enforced security policies in place that make the above violaions not quite as bad as they sound. I won't disucess them though. Security through obsecurity is no security, but in many situations actualy mathamatical (provable) security is not possibal.
That is their own fault though!
Part of buying a product is making sure that it will fit your needs. When you buy a product for external customers to interact with, many of whom are likely to want to do so automaticly, then you need to make sure that your requirements include the ability for customers to automatic their processes using whatever means they want.
Saying that licenses are a restriction is a cop out. If this was data only intended for use internall to UPS, then not being open source compatable is something they need to decide if they care about, and if not, they deal with. However this is intended for use external to UPS, and therefore to say that open source can't be supported just shows that they failed specify requriements.
To be useful it needs to have the following, which it lacks, or at least doesn't claim to have. (I don't need any compensation for these ideas, being able to get them is enough)
It needs to figgure out what machines I have in my enertainment system and interface to them automaticly. I don't want to have to point a remote at it and program each button as that takes too long. I don't even want to have to figgure out if I have a RCA model 364526z or 36532f. It needs to figgure that out. (I'll accept some trail, that is "we have have narrowed your TV down to one of 3 choices, please indicate when the TV goes on)
It needs act as a game controller expander. I have a PS/2, a NES64, and a Atari 2600 connected to my tv (not really, but I wish). It needs to have something that will plug into each machine's controler interface, and then use the USB controlers pluged into this thing to control whichever system I happen to play. Optional modules for each are fine so long as they are not too expensive.
It needs to display on the TV. Sure it has a built in screen, but when I connect my USB keychain with my photo album to the machine, I really want to show the picuters to my family on the big TV, not the little remote screen. (Even though the remote in theory might have better resolution it is smaller)
Since it already runs linux, include xlincity, freeciv, and any other good linux games. (see above about displaying on the TV...)
And finially it must be easy to use. At $1700 I can buy a lot of compuer. I've considered it in fact, and other than not having a good remote ability I think I can do most of what I want with a custom linux box a lot cheaper.
Have you payed attendtion to recyceling costs? Most curbside recyceling programs are lossing money because resources are not worth the effort to collect. In theory we can mine landfills, and I expect in the future we will. Today Almost nothing is worth the cost extract it.
Well, about 1/3rd of the Spam I recieve is in a font that Pine can't display on an Xterm. I'm guessing Asia is the origion and target of it because few people would have use for it. (OTOH, maybe outlook displays it fine, and it is english, I wouldn't know) Another 5% (estimate) is in a non-english language. Unlikely to target Americans where english is the dominate language and many people speak nothing else.
Nearly all the rest is illegal in someway. Perscription medication, financial offers, online sex, and enlargements. Those who really want to offer such are likely to want to be outside of the US because it is harder to get caught. Medications have tricky advertising laws. Banks must be licensed in my state to do buisness with me. Sex and enlargements violate "community standards" which the supream court has sort of stated is subject to restrictions despite the first amendment, and since I know kids get this spam I know they are breaking state laws prohibiting kids from seeing this.
Note that I'm making a claim on the origion, not the target. I'll Grant that 60% of all spam is targeted at US residents. The origion in the US seems much less likely.
I'm still waiting for the day when I can go to Best Buy and get a harddrive with more storage than the number of elimentery particals in the universe. I figgure at current rates that is only about 60 years away.
One of my friends bought a robotic massage chair a couple years ago. They have been in furniture stores for a while now. About $250 more than the normal chair (or double the price of a recliner) and it works great.
Most people don't have them, and a few don't like them. They will come though because most people love it, at least once in a while.
Note that it appears the chair in the japanise ad was more advanced, but since I can't read the text I can't really be sure.
I've most been in cubes all my short work life, and where is what I found worked. Some of this is a repeat of what others have said.
Furst tellecomute. Even if you have an office learn to tellecomute. Nothing stops interuptions when you are on a deadline like not being there (and your boss can tell others you are sick to encourage people not to call you at home). Short of a major customer having a critical problem isolated to your code you won't be interupted. Sell it to upper management as a solution for bad weather days, or enviormental awareness. (There is no reason to go to the office 5 days a week. 1 or 2 is plenty for a programer, think of the enivormental benifits for 1/2 the car traffic)
Make sure there is a white board in every cube. And not a little one either. I had a 4x4 one in my cube, and sometimes I ran out of space. A lot of algorithms are more easially planed on a whiteboard than on a small piece of paper. We had "war rooms" that others mentioned, but they were never used because the white board in the implimenters cube wasn't subject to erasure by the next team to need a whiteboard.
Insteard of a guest chair we had two "pedistools", which were fileing cabinets with a cushion on top. Not comfortable for all day use, but a guest could spend a few hours in your cube with one, so you could make some real plans. (See whiteboards above) Get these instead of the normal cube supplied drawers.
Make sure there is enough other storage. Some people will need it, some won't, but make sure those who need it have it.
Keybaord trays: don't fake them. We decided that instead of a $400 keybaord tray to substitution $200 keyboard shelves. A freestanding tray replacement that sat in front of the desk, and in theory could be moved away. Out of 100 cubes with them install, I recall 3 people used them, and the rest were sent to storage somewhere else. (about 10 more were latter given to cube users in other areas who wanted them). The only people who seemed to find them useful had 3 keybaords in their office. (Normally a PC, Xterminal, and a 3270) Keyboard trays would not have been a waste. (OTOH those who used the shelves likely prefered them as an ideal way to get the extra keyboards out of the way)
Lighting: for me task lighing only. For others overheard lights work good. It is easy to remove tubes, just make sure the miantance guys know you are allowed to do this. Have some hall "night lights" that are always on so it doens't get too dark. Put some task lights in every cube. Make sure there is natural light avaibale somewhere, windows in the break room, or at least sky lights. Something so we can see the sun. Even though I was 100 feet from the nearest window I could tell when a storm was comming by the changes in the light.
Have a simple plant policy and enoucrage it. Basicly if nobody is alergic to the plant than you should have it. (My first cube mate was deathly alergic to just about everything, so blooming plants were out in the area, but normal plants were still allowed) There will always be a few green thumbs in the area, install grow lights for them. It brightens the room up for the rest of us to have some real green.
Last, because last is remembered best: Get a GOOD chair. The typical cube worker will spend most of the day sitting on one chair in their cube. Dont' let management skimp here. Make it clear that if there is ever a choice that a good chair is more important than any other demand! Your body will thank you. (though a good chair doesn't substitute for exercise)
Sorry Mr. Mundie, but Apache is NOT a clone of comercial software as you tried to claim. Apache is a fork (clone) of the Origional NCSA web server, which was NOT commercial. (open source, but I'm not sure exactly what license was used so it might not meet the exact legal definition of Open Source). IIS, and the other comercial servers are clones of an open source webserver.
Of course this is all an accidemic exercise, but don't try to claim some high ground where Apachee has it.
Right, you don't have to file, if you don't owe anything. However if the IRS owes you, then you have to file to get your money back.
I'ave always felt that taxes should be due, in cash on election day. (Not a poll tax, even if you decide not to vote you still have to pay, to avoid crooks I suppose a check will have to do, but with substantial penilties for bounded checks) But few people actually save money, so this is seen as unworkable. (I personall belive that after a couple times of going to jail for not paying taxes on time people will learn to save)
That is a hasstle. Not for me, once I have it set up, but for those who want to contact me. I'm looking for a job now, I can't afford to let an otherwise good job slide by because whoever was trying to contact me has better things to do than figgure out what magic is needed to make my email work. There are many more job hunters than jobs right now, so they won't take the time to email me if I don't respond back right away.
I also question your notspam@example.com solution. Someday that will get onto the spammers lists, and then you have spam there too.
Try $40/month. Serious, that would be my actual charge for unlimited local calling. Sure the basic charge is less, but then there are taxes and fees that I have to pay. My cell phone cost the same amount, and my calling area isn't just my metropolitan area, but the entire US. Sure in theory I have limited minutes, but in paractce I've never come close to the amount of time I'm given. (most months I'd be better off on a cheaper plan, but I don't know which in advance so I stay on the one that is always plenty)
If I get even one false positive, it means I have to manually wade through the 35 SPAM (actual count today) messages I got today, just incase one was a false positive. In effect the spam matching effort is wasted because I still have to look at all the spam. I want spam elimination software to get rid of the spam so I can go on with my life without paying attention to it. When I have to pay attention to it at all, that means that the software is worthless.
False negatives are not as bad. If I can get rid of all the breast enhancement ads (without losing the gossip about some aunt who got enhancements) my life would be better. But if there is a flase match what is the point?
Email is a tool. I get messages every day that I need to read. Most people don't call me, and I used to encourage that as I would prefer to communicate over email. (almost as fast as a phone, but there is a chance to take those stupid things I tend to say back) Spam has made email nearly useless for general communication though.
Working at home has some disadvantages. Make sure you watch the office politics and the rumor mill. This will be harder than ever because you can't take coffee or a smoke break with people. Try to find someone local to feed you the gossip. Most of it you can ignore, some you MUST ignore, but there is a little bit that not knowing can make or break you.
other than that, what you do is up to you. You have a lot more flexability, but don't abuse it. You should read less /. than if you were at the office, just because at the office someone could pop in which will make your paranoid enough to (hopefully) keep it reasonable. You can now have the cat on your lap, which can make work a lot more comfotable, or distract you from working.
I find that I have no need for op-code compatability, so long as I have source code compatability. GCC can take the same source file, and make it run on nearly any processor. (Any reasonable processor really, but if I don't qualify it someone will ask about 6502 support)
I care about how fast the processor is running my apps. x86, Sparc, MIPS, alpha, come to mind as reasonable processors to consider, all will meet my needs just fine.
Well, there is an exception, I have wine installed so in theory I can run some programs only if I have binary compatability. In practice I rarely do that. Rarely enough that the few times I want to do it I can just ssh over to an x86 machine that I can pick up dirt cheap, and magicly the program will run on my other machine. (And most people won't know that I had to do a little magic to make it work)
The Centronics port sucks as a printer interface. It is not two-way, and even though two-way standards exists, they are not well supported. Odds are your parrell printer doesn't make use of that ability. So you end up with "Print one FIRE" errors because the printer isn't out of paper, and it is online, but there is still a problem that it wants to notify you about. USB makes is easy (at least in theory, we all know that practice isn't often the same) to send whatever error you want, so you can say things like "The printer is out of red ink", or "There is a paper jam at the output tray".
USB as a keyboard/mouse interface is nice because you can have more than one of each with USB, which means for the few people who want that, they can do it. (In other words I agree that there is no compelling reason to replace PS/2 ports, but from a cost point of view you can save a couple ports and a little chip space if you skip them)
YEah, execpt that I'm not on the toilet with a dirty rear end and nothing to clean it with. I try to be in the habbit of checking before I sit down at a public toilet, but in most cases I forget. At home this is no problem because I keep spare rolls in the bathroom for this type of emergency.
At a restaruant I have to get up, put my clothes on, find someone who works there, get them to put in a fresh roll (hopefully they don't think they are too busy with something else), and then after that I can clean up. Of course by this time I'm no longer fit to be in public, so I go straight home to shower. (Actually I'm not fit to ask the guy behind the counter to change the roll either, so what really happens is I live it for the next person to repeat the process.
The University of Minnesota has the same tunnels, and used to have the same "nobody allowed in the tunnels policy". Then someone realised that it gets cold in Minnesota, and these tunnels run between most of the buildings, so they opened them up. Most people still don't use them, often to get from twon bulding 100 feet apart you needed to travel 700 feet or more. Still I did use them on the coldest days when it wasn't too far out of my way to do so, and was surprized how few people were down there.
Mind you the tunnels are official open, but they are not well labeled, often you have to go through a door where they scratched out the "private" sign. If you didn't know that you are now allowed in them you would think it is an off limits area. (I don't know why that would stop a student, but appearently it did) There also were few signs, so you had to know where they led. More than once I've seen someone ask a maintance person where the tunnel to some building was only to find they were in the building.