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Comment Retire into "freelance" (Score 1) 341

I am not the entrepreneurial type, but I get offers for side projects all the time... I would never do them if my livelihood depended on it, because I am just too risk averse, So I will work a "straight job" until I have a big enough nest egg to retire, then I will start working on fun projects (or you know play video games in my underwear till I die, more likely) but the plan is "retire" into non-corporate work.

Comment "Millionaire" - The Middle class retirement goal. (Score 1) 467

Developers are white collar workers, who can do math. If you ask any white collar worker in america "Do you expect to become a millionaire?" If they answer no, they are either bad at math or bad at retirement planning, or both.

Now I am not saying "everyone will be a millionaire" but I am saying that if you asked the same thing of a Nurse, pharmacist, professor, regional manager at Jack-in-the-Box, or a School Administrator... they should have the same answer, as they have similar salary levels to a "Developer."

Any young-ish person in the $75k+ salary level should answer yes to that question... or should seriously downsize their spending.

Comment Re:AT&T also sucks (Score 1) 328

Posted this in another parent comment, but it is even more relevant to you: Try switching to google DNS servers (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4). Uverse sucks at finding even their own locally hosted Netflix peering boxes. Something about needing to completely screw over DNS in order to serve up digital TV channels you don't want (and in some cases don't even get). On Uverse default config, my netflix content was streamed from Seattle to my location in Texas, which worked, except during peak hours. After overriding to Google DNS (which you have to do on the OS level, or buy a seperate router to do, since it is hard coded on their router) my content was streaming from an AT&T IP address, which was about 25 miles from my house (as estimated by IP address location website). The irony of course, is that it was their own server that their DNS couldn't find.

Comment Re:VERIZON! (Score 1) 328

Try switching to google DNS servers (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4).

Uverse and Verizon suck at finding even their own locally hosted Netflix peering boxes. Something about needing to completely screw over DNS in order to serve up digital TV channels you don't want (and in some cases don't even get).

On Uverse default config, my netflix content was streamed from Seattle to my location in Texas, which worked, except during peak hours.
After overriding to Google DNS (which you have to do on the OS level, or buy a seperate router to do, since it is hard coded on their router) my content was streaming from an AT&T IP address, which was about 25 miles from my house (as estimated by IP address location website).

The irony of course, is that it was their own server that their DNS couldn't find.

Comment So wait, shotguns are more accurate than the bible (Score 5, Interesting) 311

"And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one rim to the other it was round all about, and...a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about....And it was an hand breadth thick...." — First Kings, chapter 7, verses 23 and 26

30/10 = 3

Bible Pi = 95.493% accurate
Shotgun Pi = 99.67% accurate

Comment 60k female embryos, 30k male (Score 3, Interesting) 392

Generation ships are impossible** for humans, which will likely cause our extinction.

Although technically and logically, it is not an insurmountable problem. You need a small crew, 6 or 7 women per generation. A high number of frozen male and double that many frozen female embryos (which we will assume are viable forever, though we don't know).

All crew members birth one daughter. If one is not successful, one crew member births 2 daufghters.

They are raised to be the next generation of crew.

Many generations later, strict population control (through gender homogeny) 6 or 7 women will land on target planet (or more likely orbit it)

Exploratory team of males/females are raised during the last "transport" generation, then they are sent on a lander as a pilot program, meanwhile another generation of female crew is needed.

If pilot program is successful and either farming is not needed (if gatherer lifestyle is possible on destination) either send more landers, or land the craft and begin large scale birth-rate increases, with every female birthing 6 or more embryos as health allows.

While using up the rest of the embryos (which will be an exponential thing) Ease humanity into a reproductive lifestyle, as it will be culturally foreign to them.

**This requires so much space culture cooperation and "unethical" planning that humans would never do it. We are more likely to spend all of our natural resources to make a GIANT space ship that crashes and kills thousands of people instead, because of the "religion/culture" problem, which is unsolvable.

Comment The noise problem is not just a TV one. (Score 2) 544

This, combined with something I saw in a parking lot yesterday make me think again about electric cars.
I saw a guy text-walking in a parking lot, he nearly hit by a prius which was in low speed electric mode. (yeah that is a user problem, but the guy wouldn't have walked in front of a glass-packed V8 mustang.)

People expect cars to make noise. Television is a decent example since it just happened, but in real life, cars make noise, which warns peds, motorcycles, bicyclists, and other cars that there is 2 tons of metal, plastic, and rubber about to hit them.



Nearly silent, high performance cars remove one of the basest instinct protections we have against current squids driving fast cars (they are loud, so you know they are doing something stupid even before you see them). I imagine some detroit dinosaur who owns a few dozen politicians could latch on to this and require electrics to make some kind of noise.. which will be pretty funny once the hacker/teenager crowd starts modding them.

Mine will probably play Yakkety Sax until I get a DMCA takedown notice,

Comment "Education" vs "degree" (Score 4, Insightful) 127

I know very few people who actually went to university to get an education. And even fewer employers who care more about "Education" than "degree." Nearly all of the people I work with and went to college with went for a degree.
If you could do the job you want to have for the rest of your life the day you leave high school (like most software engineers who actually write code for a living - assuming some learning on the job) then your greatest ROI is to get an accredited diploma from the cheapest, fastest university you can go to.

You are filling in a checkbox, not seeking an education... don't fool yourself.

A degree is a practical expense for most people. An "education" is a luxury afforded only for the very rich. Don't go into crippling debt to get an education, you (basically everyone) can't afford that crap. You can study and learn on your own, later. You are there for a degree, and don't forget it.

An entire generation of people seem confused about this. They think an "education" is worth going into massive debt, they think an "education" will get them a job that will pay the bills... well, I should use the past tense, because nobody thinks that anymore. According to what I have read about "Millennials"

Degree as part of a structured career plan = good idea
Education as a "career will follow" plan is OVER, it was the case in 1965, but you will enjoy a lifetime full of debt and meager earnings if you use that "plan" now.

If it seems harsh and anti-education I am sorry. I am all about learning, but novelty $100,000 sheepskins, sold at 4% interest to first generation college students with no career plan - really boils my blood.

It is really disappointing that in my lifetime we have managed to shift seeking an education from an empowering experience to hopelessly and permanently hindering the lives of middle and lower class people.

Comment One practical problem with 3rd world internet... (Score 4, Insightful) 49

I think universal access to information is great, socially it is empowering and amazing... but FB and Google are not charities. As tfs says "Facebook and Google only make money from people when they can access the Internet"

The internet is only available to the the richest 30% of the world.

Advertisers currently access to the eyeballs of the top 30%

Accessing the eyeballs of the very poor or extremely remote populations does not make sense from an advertising standpoint.

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