When the younger brother of my husband (my boyfriend at the time) came to visit a few years ago, he had trouble buying a bus ticket to get home, because he didn't have a state- or federally-issued ID. They didn't care that he was 14, and too young to have a driver's licence. In the end, we had to give a bunch of our own personal information to Greyhound so that this kid could ride a bus from Massachusetts to New Hampshire. No one would argue that he was too young to ride by himself, but they wouldn't accept a school ID, which was the only identification he had.
Since that day, I've been expecting a bill like this to come up. Eventually, you'll need an ID to take any form of long-distance public transportation - if you don't already. I'm still not sure what they're going to do about people too young to drive - will the states start issuing IDs when you turn 13? 10? 5? Or if you're a "child" like my brother-in-law, will you need a passport just to take the bus?
Yeah, I was going for a lower bound. The absolute cheapest condo my husband and I have found (in the Worcester area) is still over $100,000 - and that's in a neighborhood I would not want to be in after dark. And it would be half the size of the apartment where we're living now. I guess we're just going to have to wait for the real estate bubble to burst. And if it doesn't burst, it should at least deflate a bit.
How about some real data? I'll give you numbers from my experience in the Boston area.
1) In eastern Massachusetts (even well outside of Boston), a one or two bedroom condo is over $200,000. In Boston, that same condo would be $350,000-400,000. A house with actual land around it will easily cost two or three times that much.
2) At least in Massachusetts, not everyone works in a city. Commercial/industrial real estate tends to be cheaper in the suburban areas where there is not much (if any) public transportation.
3) Real estate requires a down payment, and not everyone can afford the down payment for a home in the city (see prices in #1). My husband and I would love to buy a "cheap" condo at $200,000, but we have a large amount of student loan debt that we have to pay down before we can save up enough for a down payment on a home. We can't even approach the size of a down payment for a house in the suburbs, much less in/near the city.
4a) Not everyone buys new cars. 4b) Not everyone buys expensive cars (to own/maintain). My husband and I own used, fuel-efficient cars that are mid-priced on maintenance costs (Ford). Our total cost of ownership for both cars is under $10,000 this year (including insurance), and will drop further once my car loan is paid off.
I'll take one of your thoughts a step further: real estate prices affect not only where people live, but also where they work.
Boston is a great example. My husband and I can't afford to live in Boston - particularly because we don't work in Boston. We both work in big office complexes in the "outer loop" (I-495) suburbs, and we currently live in the next city to the west (Worcester, MA), because we can't even afford to live in most of the towns/suburbs that fall between Worcester and Boston. (Student loans factor heavily into our cost of living).
I've looked into taking public transportation from Worcester to my job, and I've realized that it would take at least twice as long and cost at least twice as much as taking my car to work (because we'd still need to keep the car for everything OTHER than work).
Even so, I am willing to try public transportation (see above link) to commute. I just don't think it's going to be worth it.
I just installed 1.03 today (I had 1.02). It kept all of my old extensions, themes, etc. The only thing I had to do was close Firefox before installing/upgrading.
In recent upgrades, they've really done a nice job with user experience. There's still room for improvement, but the current experience rivals most pieces of software that AREN'T free.
I wonder what's going to happen to Cold Fusion? It's already the black sheep of the Macromedia "familiy". Maybe they'll just keep "supporting" it as poorly as they do now...
I had a similar experience to you. MIT struck me as being very cold and impersonal. I wanted a great engineering/tech education, but that didn't seem like the right place for me.
Instead, I went to WPI, jokingly referred to as "that other tech school in Massachusetts". It's a fairly small school, focused on teaching undergraduates. The people are friendly, and just as nerdy as they are at MIT. A degree from WPI is pretty well-recognized within the Northeast, and I know a few undergraduates here who managed to get their MQP (aka senior thesis) published in a scientific journal.
In the end, I feel that I made the right choice. I picked a school that was small and personal, so I could excel in my studies, have a personal life, and still get a great education. I'm sure that would have been possible at MIT, too - but I don't regret the choice I made.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with Jiffy Lube - other than the fact that they charge way too much for cheap-quality oil. I live in an apartment with no garage and a hilly, shared driveway, so I don't always change my oil myself, either.
My point was simply that there are many people out there who don't bother to learn how to change their oil or change a flat tire. I know a few people (women, mostly) who barely know how to check their fluids. Basic car maintenance is at least as simple as basic computer maintenance, but many people can't be bothered to do either one.
P.S. If you are concerned about the disposal of your oil, check with your local auto-parts store, or the place you would be buying your oil & filter from. They will usually dispose of your used oil for free/cheap.
You would be amazed at the number of people now who can't even do basic maintenance on their cars. They go to Jiffy Lube for an oil change. They have AAA to tow them if they get a flat tire. Any time a warning light goes on, they rush to a mechanic - or they ignore it, to their own peril.
You expect this kind of person to pay attention to the error messages on their computer? They have no incentive to learn about their computer, just like they have no incentive to learn about their car.
A few weeks ago, my husband and I went to Coldstone Creamery in the middle of a snowstorm. Why? Because their ice cream is soooo good. And since we went when the weather outside was cold AND snowy, we didn't have to wait in line:)
Wow. My hat is off to you. Once it gets down into the low 20s, I have problems even walking 1/4 mile (about the length of the walk to my car) without shaking uncontrollably. How on earth do you stay warm, biking in this kind of weather?
I'd love to ride my bike to work, but the combination of weather (above) and the 25-mile commute make it pretty difficult. I like riding my bike, but when it's a difference of an hour or two every day, I'd rather spend that time with my family.
Amen. Nowadays, I design my sites in FireFox, and go back to check them in IE. It's generally easier to apply a "fix" to make it work in IE than to use IE's non-standard codes and awful interpretation (Box model, anyone?)
At least it's possible to force IE into a more standards-friendly rendering mode by using a STRICT doctype (HTML 4 or XHTML)... too bad most of the sites I work with have existing designs that can't cope with a strict doctype.
Living near Boston, I am increasingly annoyed at the controversy over the proposed wind farm project off Nantucket. Everyone involved agrees that wind energy in general would be beneficial... but there are plenty of people opposed to the project. "It will lower our property values," they say (in one of the most over-valued areas in the country). "We shouldn't let a private for-profit firm industrialize this public resource" - never mentioning the fishermen who do already make profit off of this "public resource".
I want to ask the people who complain - would they rather have a nuclear or coal power plant in their backyard? Of course not! So why all the fuss over implementing some clean, renewable energy?
It probably will. I use FastMail, and set it up to grab emails from my old Hotmail account, too. They recently (maybe 2 months ago) sent a message that Hotmail will be changing its send/receive format, and services like FastMail will no longer be able to retrieve that mail for you.
In the long run, it probably doesn't matter what school you go to.
While you're in college looking for summer jobs, and your first few years after college - it will matter what school you went to. But a few years of work experience will pretty much equalize the difference between going to a good (but not top-of-the-line) school and a mediocre one.
If you switch to a top-of-the-line school, it will make a difference for a longer period of time. (Example: Carnegie-Mellon for CS) A school like this will turn heads in your direction - but it may also make you "overqualified" for more jobs (translation: we don't want to pay you more money).
Actually, Mac OS 8-9 are also completely different than Mac OS 7.x and earlier... because OS 8 was re-written for PowerPC machines, while OS 7 is for the old 6800 Macs.
If you paid attention to the financial news, you would also hear much lamenting over the fact that the economy seems to be improving, but there hasn't been a noticeable increase in hiring yet.
A personal example: I recently graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science. Out of about 15 CS students I know personally who graduated in the past year, one had a job within 2-3 months of graduation (not counting myself). Many of them had to wait 6 months or more before receiving any kind of job offer... and most of them haven't recieved any offers at all, and are working part-time jobs that pay a little more than minimum wage. If the economy is indeed looking up, you couldn't prove it to them. They can barely afford rent and food.
Funny, I was thinking my starting salary would be around $35k (which I would have been happy with)... until my boss surprised me with an offer letter that stated $47k.
40k might be unreasonable if you live in CA or in a major city (like New York or Boston), but in most places around the country, you can live comfortably (not extravagantly, but without the necessity of roommates or a clunker car) on 40k or less.
If you'll notice, the original poster said "get rid of it", not "throw it out". Getting rid of things can mean throwing them in the trash, but it can also mean donating it to someone who needs it, or selling it via garage sale/ebay/etc.
I personally subscribe to this theory. I currently live in a shared apartment, so there's not tons of space - and my parents are selling their house, therefore I have to deal with all "my stuff" at home. They were both amazed at how much I decided to get rid of, instead of making space to store tons of stuff that I would rarely (if ever) use.
I only threw out things that I didn't think would be of use to anyone - mostly things that were so dirty or stained that they weren't worth recovering. All the paper items went into recycling, and everything else went into boxes marked "Give away" - which luckily, I was able to let my parents deal with:)
I am sick of seeing main navigation links be images, just so the designer could have cool JS rollovers. Don't they know that you can do that with CSS? And if you do, your page will be more accessible, and break for less people?
That includes serious amounts of exercise (much more than the 'recommended' half hour per day or so).
When? I get up at 6:45, exercise for 20 minutes, and leave the house by 8:20. (I'm slow in the morning.) I drive 40 minutes to work. I work all day, and cannot currently afford to take an hour-long break to go exercise in the middle of the day; this may change, however, once I become salaried. I usually run a few errands and get home at 6:30. By then, it is cold and getting dark (at least for the next 5 months or so), and I am mentally exhausted - and hungry. By the time I've eaten and let the food settle, it's 8. Now it's REALLY dark, and I have ZERO motivation to exercise.
Any suggestions? I must drive to work, it's over 20 miles away. I'm sure as hell not going to get up any earlier; it's hard enough to drag myself out of bed and get started on those 20 minutes of exercise. Some friends want me to go weight-lifting with them, but they're not prepared to do it after 6pm.
I'd like to find time to exercise more, but what can I do around 8-9pm, in my apartment, without (much) special equipment, and without pissing off my roommates or the people who live below my apartment? Honestly, I'm open to suggestions. This is something I've been thinking about for several weeks.
I totally agree. Cravings are here to stay. But just because you crave something, doesn't mean that has to be a staple of your diet.
I've been on the Hacker's Diet (more or less) for 4 months now. I'm a chick, so I crave chocolate and sweets. I try to ignore my cravings if I've already met my caloric goal for the day; but if I can't resist, I have some. Note that word: some. If it's brownies, I limit myself to one, not three or four, no matter how good they taste. If they're really awesome, maybe I can take some home with me for tomorrow or the next day. With ice cream, I used to measure out a certain amount - 1/2 cup to 1 cup - and then I would NOT let myself eat any more of it.
I've already lost about 20 pounds, and it's still dropping. I rarely feel deprived, but sometimes I do overeat. When that happens, I just buck up and eat a little less the next day. I actually feel hungry when I eat my meals, and they satisfy me more than they ever did before. Best of all, I now have the willpower to say "Only one, please."
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When the younger brother of my husband (my boyfriend at the time) came to visit a few years ago, he had trouble buying a bus ticket to get home, because he didn't have a state- or federally-issued ID. They didn't care that he was 14, and too young to have a driver's licence. In the end, we had to give a bunch of our own personal information to Greyhound so that this kid could ride a bus from Massachusetts to New Hampshire. No one would argue that he was too young to ride by himself, but they wouldn't accept a school ID, which was the only identification he had.
Since that day, I've been expecting a bill like this to come up. Eventually, you'll need an ID to take any form of long-distance public transportation - if you don't already. I'm still not sure what they're going to do about people too young to drive - will the states start issuing IDs when you turn 13? 10? 5? Or if you're a "child" like my brother-in-law, will you need a passport just to take the bus?
The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company was renamed to "International Business Machines Corporation" in 1924.
The roots of the company go back to the 1880s - see IBM's website.
Yeah, I was going for a lower bound. The absolute cheapest condo my husband and I have found (in the Worcester area) is still over $100,000 - and that's in a neighborhood I would not want to be in after dark. And it would be half the size of the apartment where we're living now. I guess we're just going to have to wait for the real estate bubble to burst. And if it doesn't burst, it should at least deflate a bit.
How about some real data? I'll give you numbers from my experience in the Boston area.
1) In eastern Massachusetts (even well outside of Boston), a one or two bedroom condo is over $200,000. In Boston, that same condo would be $350,000-400,000. A house with actual land around it will easily cost two or three times that much.
2) At least in Massachusetts, not everyone works in a city. Commercial/industrial real estate tends to be cheaper in the suburban areas where there is not much (if any) public transportation.
3) Real estate requires a down payment, and not everyone can afford the down payment for a home in the city (see prices in #1). My husband and I would love to buy a "cheap" condo at $200,000, but we have a large amount of student loan debt that we have to pay down before we can save up enough for a down payment on a home. We can't even approach the size of a down payment for a house in the suburbs, much less in/near the city.
4a) Not everyone buys new cars. 4b) Not everyone buys expensive cars (to own/maintain). My husband and I own used, fuel-efficient cars that are mid-priced on maintenance costs (Ford). Our total cost of ownership for both cars is under $10,000 this year (including insurance), and will drop further once my car loan is paid off.
I'll take one of your thoughts a step further: real estate prices affect not only where people live, but also where they work.
Boston is a great example. My husband and I can't afford to live in Boston - particularly because we don't work in Boston. We both work in big office complexes in the "outer loop" (I-495) suburbs, and we currently live in the next city to the west (Worcester, MA), because we can't even afford to live in most of the towns/suburbs that fall between Worcester and Boston. (Student loans factor heavily into our cost of living).
I've looked into taking public transportation from Worcester to my job, and I've realized that it would take at least twice as long and cost at least twice as much as taking my car to work (because we'd still need to keep the car for everything OTHER than work).
Even so, I am willing to try public transportation (see above link) to commute. I just don't think it's going to be worth it.
I just installed 1.03 today (I had 1.02). It kept all of my old extensions, themes, etc. The only thing I had to do was close Firefox before installing/upgrading.
In recent upgrades, they've really done a nice job with user experience. There's still room for improvement, but the current experience rivals most pieces of software that AREN'T free.
I wonder what's going to happen to Cold Fusion? It's already the black sheep of the Macromedia "familiy". Maybe they'll just keep "supporting" it as poorly as they do now...
I had a similar experience to you. MIT struck me as being very cold and impersonal. I wanted a great engineering/tech education, but that didn't seem like the right place for me.
Instead, I went to WPI, jokingly referred to as "that other tech school in Massachusetts". It's a fairly small school, focused on teaching undergraduates. The people are friendly, and just as nerdy as they are at MIT. A degree from WPI is pretty well-recognized within the Northeast, and I know a few undergraduates here who managed to get their MQP (aka senior thesis) published in a scientific journal.
In the end, I feel that I made the right choice. I picked a school that was small and personal, so I could excel in my studies, have a personal life, and still get a great education. I'm sure that would have been possible at MIT, too - but I don't regret the choice I made.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with Jiffy Lube - other than the fact that they charge way too much for cheap-quality oil. I live in an apartment with no garage and a hilly, shared driveway, so I don't always change my oil myself, either.
My point was simply that there are many people out there who don't bother to learn how to change their oil or change a flat tire. I know a few people (women, mostly) who barely know how to check their fluids. Basic car maintenance is at least as simple as basic computer maintenance, but many people can't be bothered to do either one.
P.S. If you are concerned about the disposal of your oil, check with your local auto-parts store, or the place you would be buying your oil & filter from. They will usually dispose of your used oil for free/cheap.
You would be amazed at the number of people now who can't even do basic maintenance on their cars. They go to Jiffy Lube for an oil change. They have AAA to tow them if they get a flat tire. Any time a warning light goes on, they rush to a mechanic - or they ignore it, to their own peril.
You expect this kind of person to pay attention to the error messages on their computer? They have no incentive to learn about their computer, just like they have no incentive to learn about their car.
A few weeks ago, my husband and I went to Coldstone Creamery in the middle of a snowstorm. Why? Because their ice cream is soooo good. And since we went when the weather outside was cold AND snowy, we didn't have to wait in line :)
Wow. My hat is off to you. Once it gets down into the low 20s, I have problems even walking 1/4 mile (about the length of the walk to my car) without shaking uncontrollably. How on earth do you stay warm, biking in this kind of weather?
I'd love to ride my bike to work, but the combination of weather (above) and the 25-mile commute make it pretty difficult. I like riding my bike, but when it's a difference of an hour or two every day, I'd rather spend that time with my family.
Amen. Nowadays, I design my sites in FireFox, and go back to check them in IE. It's generally easier to apply a "fix" to make it work in IE than to use IE's non-standard codes and awful interpretation (Box model, anyone?)
At least it's possible to force IE into a more standards-friendly rendering mode by using a STRICT doctype (HTML 4 or XHTML)... too bad most of the sites I work with have existing designs that can't cope with a strict doctype.
Living near Boston, I am increasingly annoyed at the controversy over the proposed wind farm project off Nantucket. Everyone involved agrees that wind energy in general would be beneficial... but there are plenty of people opposed to the project. "It will lower our property values," they say (in one of the most over-valued areas in the country). "We shouldn't let a private for-profit firm industrialize this public resource" - never mentioning the fishermen who do already make profit off of this "public resource".
I want to ask the people who complain - would they rather have a nuclear or coal power plant in their backyard? Of course not! So why all the fuss over implementing some clean, renewable energy?
I hope this does not break Hotway.
It probably will. I use FastMail, and set it up to grab emails from my old Hotmail account, too. They recently (maybe 2 months ago) sent a message that Hotmail will be changing its send/receive format, and services like FastMail will no longer be able to retrieve that mail for you.
In the long run, it probably doesn't matter what school you go to.
While you're in college looking for summer jobs, and your first few years after college - it will matter what school you went to. But a few years of work experience will pretty much equalize the difference between going to a good (but not top-of-the-line) school and a mediocre one.
If you switch to a top-of-the-line school, it will make a difference for a longer period of time. (Example: Carnegie-Mellon for CS) A school like this will turn heads in your direction - but it may also make you "overqualified" for more jobs (translation: we don't want to pay you more money).
Actually, Mac OS 8-9 are also completely different than Mac OS 7.x and earlier... because OS 8 was re-written for PowerPC machines, while OS 7 is for the old 6800 Macs.
If you paid attention to the financial news, you would also hear much lamenting over the fact that the economy seems to be improving, but there hasn't been a noticeable increase in hiring yet.
A personal example:
I recently graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science. Out of about 15 CS students I know personally who graduated in the past year, one had a job within 2-3 months of graduation (not counting myself). Many of them had to wait 6 months or more before receiving any kind of job offer... and most of them haven't recieved any offers at all, and are working part-time jobs that pay a little more than minimum wage. If the economy is indeed looking up, you couldn't prove it to them. They can barely afford rent and food.
Funny, I was thinking my starting salary would be around $35k (which I would have been happy with)... until my boss surprised me with an offer letter that stated $47k.
40k might be unreasonable if you live in CA or in a major city (like New York or Boston), but in most places around the country, you can live comfortably (not extravagantly, but without the necessity of roommates or a clunker car) on 40k or less.
If you'll notice, the original poster said "get rid of it", not "throw it out". Getting rid of things can mean throwing them in the trash, but it can also mean donating it to someone who needs it, or selling it via garage sale/ebay/etc.
:)
I personally subscribe to this theory. I currently live in a shared apartment, so there's not tons of space - and my parents are selling their house, therefore I have to deal with all "my stuff" at home. They were both amazed at how much I decided to get rid of, instead of making space to store tons of stuff that I would rarely (if ever) use.
I only threw out things that I didn't think would be of use to anyone - mostly things that were so dirty or stained that they weren't worth recovering. All the paper items went into recycling, and everything else went into boxes marked "Give away" - which luckily, I was able to let my parents deal with
I am sick of seeing main navigation links be images, just so the designer could have cool JS rollovers. Don't they know that you can do that with CSS? And if you do, your page will be more accessible, and break for less people?
Argh...
That includes serious amounts of exercise (much more than the 'recommended' half hour per day or so).
When? I get up at 6:45, exercise for 20 minutes, and leave the house by 8:20. (I'm slow in the morning.) I drive 40 minutes to work.
I work all day, and cannot currently afford to take an hour-long break to go exercise in the middle of the day; this may change, however, once I become salaried.
I usually run a few errands and get home at 6:30. By then, it is cold and getting dark (at least for the next 5 months or so), and I am mentally exhausted - and hungry. By the time I've eaten and let the food settle, it's 8. Now it's REALLY dark, and I have ZERO motivation to exercise.
Any suggestions? I must drive to work, it's over 20 miles away. I'm sure as hell not going to get up any earlier; it's hard enough to drag myself out of bed and get started on those 20 minutes of exercise. Some friends want me to go weight-lifting with them, but they're not prepared to do it after 6pm.
I'd like to find time to exercise more, but what can I do around 8-9pm, in my apartment, without (much) special equipment, and without pissing off my roommates or the people who live below my apartment? Honestly, I'm open to suggestions. This is something I've been thinking about for several weeks.
Craving for yummy foods is hard-wired.
I totally agree. Cravings are here to stay. But just because you crave something, doesn't mean that has to be a staple of your diet.
I've been on the Hacker's Diet (more or less) for 4 months now. I'm a chick, so I crave chocolate and sweets. I try to ignore my cravings if I've already met my caloric goal for the day; but if I can't resist, I have some. Note that word: some. If it's brownies, I limit myself to one, not three or four, no matter how good they taste. If they're really awesome, maybe I can take some home with me for tomorrow or the next day. With ice cream, I used to measure out a certain amount - 1/2 cup to 1 cup - and then I would NOT let myself eat any more of it.
I've already lost about 20 pounds, and it's still dropping. I rarely feel deprived, but sometimes I do overeat. When that happens, I just buck up and eat a little less the next day. I actually feel hungry when I eat my meals, and they satisfy me more than they ever did before. Best of all, I now have the willpower to say "Only one, please."
Sorry, wasn't thinking of remote logging-in. I only have OS X on my laptop, where that's not really a issue.