The few times I've been forced to use valet parking I will usually hand the guy taking the car $2 or something... the idea is that you're saying, hey I'm giving you $2 so that you'd don't destroy my car. It makes no sense to be honest because anyone in that type of a job should want to do a good job in order to keep the job itself--either because of the paycheck or access to other tips.

But I also drive an 11 year old Honda Civic that has smelled like spoiled milk for the past 2 years that I've owned it, so honestly, there's not much you can do to it that will make me upset...

I assume you're not in the US? Never heard of a rental agency in the US with manual transmission, at least not mainstream rental within the past 20 years.

As a person who has rented many cars and had a share of problems, I have never had to pay for a mechanical breakdown--including flat tires or batteries--in the 50+ rentals I've done over the past many years. I've only had a dead battery once though, but I called the rental agency and they sent a tow truck to jump the car. I had a flat once they sent a guy out with a different rental car, I took the new one and he presumably changed the tire on the old one and drove it back to their lot...

So I'm surprised to hear that someone had to pay for a dead battery--the exception of course would be if the rental returned the car and left a light turned on or something, in that case I could potentially understand them trying to hit the renter for a fee...

WTF are you talking about?

Why would a rental car company charge you, the renter, for a dead battery in their vehicle as a result of equipment they allowed to be installed? Further, I seriously doubt a dead battery in a rental car would be considered "damage", I've needed a jump in a rental before, they usually apologize profusely and send a tow truck to get you going again.

AT&T hot spots exist on Boston's commuter rail trains... AT&T also has hot spots in cafes which are at the train stations... The routers are inside the train vehicle and the signal is generally not that strong outside of it. I would guess a bus will be similar. I think the likelihood of a bus driving by you kicking you off your existing connection is pretty low. Or at least, that's been my experience using AT&T hot spots while trains pull up, passengers exchange happens, and they pull away...

I suppose MAYBE if you're sitting right next to the bus and using one of the Xfinity outdoor hotspots the bus' signal could rival it so you might end up with a hiccup, maybe...

The problem I have with Android is the multiple ways and places you might be backing up data...

There's Google holding all my email, contacts, calendars...

Drop Box get's all my photos...

Those are the choices I made, but then I have a T-Mobile branded backup application, one from "Locate", and another from HTC... where does this data end up? I have no idea... it's not obvious so I don't want to use it.

I suppose if you consider the time before humans and the time after humans, then OK sure it's zero sum I suppose because we're all going to be heatless dust one day.

But in the meantime, looking at the era of human existence, I don't think life has ever been a zero sum game. We create and capture things from what was previous useless... that alone makes it not zero sum.

Uhh, yeah, kind of...

I'm not going to the stockade because I decided to quit my job in the middle of a project.

I'm also not going to risk my life for the success of a project.

#1 is all you need for this argument.

In the US, and most of the western world, there is no reason to allow yourself to be brutalized mentally and physically for a job unless that job is saving lives (either your own or others).

But having it do to you while working to make Ford vehicles slightly faster so that the company can turn a (larger) profit? No thanks.

I could see something like this working if they tied incentives to both your individual performance and the performance of your "unit", people might be willing to deal with this if it means a 20-30% larger pay check week to week...

You mean because GM, Ford, Chrysler (the companies) will be given contracts to build the tanks/etc, or do you mean because we need skilled/experienced workers, factories and other infrastructure?

If it's the latter, I'd argue that bailing out the domestic auto industry is not required. The government could seize any of the foreign factories operating in the US--you think the average line worker at the Hyundai factory in Tennessee is going to say no when he's told he's building tanks now for the US military instead of mini-vans?

If you're saying we need the companies, well, I think the government would be better off just starting their own factories and design centers--between local police forces, national guard, army, navy, air force, nasa, DHS, etc you think they can't drum up enough internal business to keep things rolling at the various levels needed? Of course they can...

the amount of useful knowledge and skills gained in such positions is pretty negligible

Don't underestimate the value of learning how to work in a professional environment, labs, etc... There is a difference between a grocery job and a professional job... there is a difference between a school lab and a professional lab. I think a 3-4 month job is an excellent length of time to help absorb both.

I also learned quite a lot about using different equipment as my school was using only HP equipment, at my first job I was using Tektronics and a few other brands... yes it doesn't take much to figure it out, but it does take time to get comfortable.

Necessity is also the mother of invention, I found that solving real world problems was more satisfying than solving artificial problems presented by a professor.

You ought to be required to work for free before you can get a job? Sounds a bit like bullshit protectionism to me.

He didn't say free, he said co-op and internship. In some majors an internship may be free, but in engineering it's often paid (unless you're working at a company where the payment is being able to say you worked for THAT company... i.e. making contacts and references).

My school required two 3-month co-op jobs, with a third optional job. The lowest offer I received during my search was for 2X minimum wage. The job I went with paid about 2.5-3X minimum wage. I was ultimately hired by them when I graduated and was earning about 3.5X minimum wage, which may not sound like much but I was being paid more than the majority of people I knew, including many adults, when at that level.

I graduated in 2001, so I'm about 12 years out. My first job, which lasted 14 months, was a contractor for a semiconductor manufacturer. They eventually hired me full time (with a pay cut vs. the contracting pay).

The odd part is that for the past 10 years I've been doing work that represented very basic EE activity. Now I'm starting to get into the heavier stuff and realizing that I've forgotten most of what I learned in school... it just represents familiar words and concepts, but the details are missing and must be re-learned.

I am graduating from a masters in computer science program now (it seemed like a good idea at the time, in hindsight I think I'd have preferred to get a EE masters and may work on that next)--I have no experience with professional software development. I have decided that if I were to make a change to that career path I'd be looking at "starting over" from a salary point of view. I'd be looking for a college hire or entry level position (with that level of pay).

I think in any skilled or professional roll there a "pay your dues" period where you are being underpaid for the work you may be doing. You need to take that time and leverage it to increasing responsibility and pay.

That is put perfectly, and matches my own experience.

I'm out of school for 12-13 years and my salary is just barely 50-60% higher than starting, which was exceptional at the time. If you don't make the move to marketing, sales or management you will stagnate. The exception of course is for anyone who is above average and performing company critical functions (but then you need to constantly apply pressure to see increases).

I'm not complaining, I like the work and I still get paid very well compared to the average person...

Umm... I think his point is that as a 5 year old you, if you tossed a frisbee on the roof that didn't me that YOU were on the roof. It means you threw something on the roof.

YOU were on to the roof until you were "6 or 7" and expended your time and resources to physically move your body up to that place.

So going back to the original post... the 5-year old you is like the Russian's--Not on the moon, just tossing stuff up there... The "6 or 7" year old you is like the US American's--Actually on the moon in person.

Do we really know enough about the moon to positively say there is very little value in returning? That is based on established knowledge and (relatively) superficial observation. It's like saying there is little value in exploring the deeper recesses of the ocean's on Earth because there's nothing left unknown. The truth is that we don't necessarily have ALL the knowledge there is know about these places--and so in that case return trips to the moon, for research and study, could potentially yield some yet-unknown caches of valuable information.

Observing the Earth from orbit you'd have no idea about the details and histories that can be discovered by literally scratching away the surface. I understand it's unlikely the moon holds the same types of secrets, but until we start to check, how can we truly know?

The moon is also a fantastic way to start our efforts for settlement and permanent research on other planets... it's extremely close by (in astronomical standards), and it represents a very harsh environment (in human life standards) ... so why not use it as a test bed? That alone makes it a worthwhile effort to return.