Can it complete with the commercial applications, like Turbo Tax? Will it try and upsell you every other page? Will it nag you to share your information so they can market other for-profit products to you?

Annnnnd it's gone. Next please!

Back in the day, Packard-Bell made a business model out of this. Their computers were the cheapest because their components were simply whatever they got cheapest. Whether audio cards or surface mount components on circuitboards, they didn't bother to distinguish makes, models, or revisions. The exact same motherboard revision with only a different manufacture date, could easily have different components.

They made utter shit.

These factories sound like the perfect customers for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).

Looking at the regulations, it seems you can only import or buy USED HCFC-22 and not virgin.

And while you may be able to see the wholesale prices, that's probably because you are in a business that is registered and has a craptop of paperwork on file -- or are dealing thru one. The recordkeeping requirements to "buy" this stuff is detailed and onerous.

I can visualize images in my mind. I can "see" an apple, or even "read" a page of words from an image of it in my head, which is distinctly different from reciting words from memory without the visualization for me. What I can't do is generate moving images in my mind. If I try and think of a person walking, I can visualize some individual frames but not the full motion. Slideshow yes, movie no. This has always bothered me. I do dream with full motion, though.

Did you at least get a t-shirt?

Summary of the OIG report: lax processes allowed the purchasing of non-FedRAMP cloud services using department purchase cards (credit cards) instead of approved contract vehicles, which resulted in CSPs and cloud environments not on department inventory. Ghost clouds. Furthermore, they weren't properly audited nor were sufficient controls in place (obviously).

So, basically, "I need a waiver because none of the secured stuff will let my entire team have local admin! Screw you! I'll put it on a credit card and not tell IT!"

I currently live in West Virginia and have lived in Illinois and northern Idaho, and my wife is from northern Indiana. We've spent plenty of time, including winter, in Montana and South Dakota. I'm intimately familiar with the winters and the cold and how there's nothing in winter between you and the North Pole but pine trees.

If extended cold is your concern, your money is better spent -- and health preserved -- by properly insulating your house. It will by far give you the most bang for your buck in reducing your heating needs, regardless of the fuel or source. Get loose fill fiber or foam blown in the walls, and double up on the attic insulation. Get a blower door test, then fix every last draft and leaky spot you can, and the heat that is in there today will STAY there and you won't freeze even if it does go sub-zero outside.

Solar panels and batteries, including possibly an EV that can act as a big, backup battery are what I recommended to help improve your personal electricity reliability. Are you aware that a fully charged F-150 Lightning can power a typical home for multiple days? Switch to "critical loads" like heat pumps, lighting, phone charging, and light cooking, and it is a week plus. That's WITHOUT a separate home battery and ZERO solar panels generating any electricity. Cold improves the efficiency of solar panels, as long as they aren't completely buried in snow that you have to brush off.

Your focus on keeping warm is absolutely right, and I don't disagree. But it is a horrible waste of money to just burn more stuff if you're leaking all the heat outside, regardless of the fuel source.

Are you familiar with reconductoring? While the cost of the conductors themselves are more expensive, that cost is more than saved by being able to do the work as maintenance and not new lines. All the permitting, right-of-way issues, and associated work goes away.

The DoE has a loan guarantee program to help encourage this. A more technical analysis can be found here. And this is more than just theoretical and has actively been rolled out worldwide.

There's a nice IRA incentive for upgrading a "biomass heating device", which is gov't speak for a high-efficiency wood stove, including inserts. I installed a Regency i2500 in an older fireplace and am quite happy with my emergency backup heat and ambiance.

You're right in that it makes little sense to replace an existing, functioning gas/oil furnace. I swapped mine for heat pumps when the oil tank rusted thru and everything was needing replaced anyway. The electricity is cheaper than the fuel oil and doesn't stink.

As far as where those gov't incentives come from...yep, get some of your hard earned tax money back. They're offering, I'm accepting where possible.

To clarify, I would recommend a smaller, stationary battery with the car being an emergency, long-outage backup. I certainly wouldn't want to have the power go out in the house if I needed to use the car during a grid outage!

And the extra cycles aren't really an issue if you're just fluctuating between like 60-80%, especially at lower L2 charge levels. You don't generate the heat and stress that way. Yes, I love the whole "topped off every morning".

If you have the option, install residential solar with batteries and focus on self-consumption. WAY too many people are bitching about rates paid to them for selling back extra solar to the power company. Stop using the grid as storage and backup. Basing your entire calculation on "when's my ROI" leaves out the value of being able to tell the power company to fuck right off and not worry about their shenanigans.

If you're in the market for a new car in the next couple of years, focus on EVs that support bi-directional charging (V2H). This way you can get a smaller home battery and use your vehicle for the rest.

Looking at new appliances? Inductions stoves, hybrid heat-pump water heaters, mini-split heat pumps instead of A/C and heaters, condensing dryers -- lots of stuff runs off of electricity and uses WAY less power than the old stuff. Some of it may cost more up front, but ROI on these can be just a couple of years depending on how much you use them.

Add to that the ability to break the oil/gasoline addiction, not worry about major utilities screwing you over, grid stability, or any of that shit adds a whole lot of value that needs to be considered. Take a hard look at the government incentives and tax credits available and stop leaving yourself at the mercy of multi-national corporations who don't give two shits about you.

It looks like Electrify America's EV charging stations use the AT&T network for payment and account processing. Many of them were reported in "free to use because the network is down" mode today.

Quoting a different article, no.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alabama-station-disbelief-200-foot-radio-tower-stolen-rcna137877