OK, but what do you use a tablet for? "Serious" work, or facebook, youtube, maybe some light email or a movie. So I think I'm OK in comparing a cheap laptop that's mostly used for that v. a tablet that's mostly used for that.

$1,100???? My daughter just got a Lenovo, about 3 lbs, 15" screen, delivered for $350. Why would I want to spend 3x the money for a smaller screen and a worse keyboard?

I can equip most of my family with nice laptops for the price of one Surface. :headscratch:

Yes! Motion can do this and much more.

Not. The schools hide the actual cost by shifting costs around.

For example, our "free paid for by by athletic money" athlete study facility is actually costing the university $2M / year - and this is "hidden" in the maintenance and janitorial budgets. Sure, the tutors are paid for and the facility was donated, but the maintenance, upkeep, and cleaning still falls to the university. And apparently our sports prima-donnas don't feel any need to keep their facility clean, as the janitorial budget for that building is substantially higher per square foot than other buildings.

And that's not rationing? If you have money, you can get it. If you don't, die. That's pretty severe rationing in my book.

That must be why the CIA ranks the US 51st in life expectancy, well behind almost every European nation.....

There is rationing here in the US along economic lines. Try getting medications or medical care with no insurance and see how well that works for you.

Yes, this.

It was actually pretty funny. Our team had cultivated our clients and we were quite profitable. We got bought by this other company with the bonus plan. Pretty much all of us quit within a year.

At bonus time, one of our more outspoken engineers opened his bonus envelope, marched into the manager's office, slapped it on his desk, and yelled: "What am I supposed to do with this? Take my wife to McDonalds?" I hadn't laughed that hard since.

I worked for a company that based your annual bonus on the amount of overtime you put in. Not productive, mind you, just hours. At the end of the year, they would tally up the hours you worked, and those with the most hours at their desk got the biggest bonuses.

Being new to this, I asked my boss: "If I do everything right, and my project never needs rework, and my clients are happy, and all my projects are profitable, and I go home on time every day, will I get a bonus?" "No."

"If I screw up, my projects are late and over budget, and I'm working a lot of hours because my clients are pissed at the low quality of work I do, and my projects constantly lose money because I'm an idiot, will I get a bonus?" "Yes."

True to form, my bonus for the year was $50, in spite of being one of the most profitable employees in the organization. I left shortly thereafter.

Yeah, that. Really, if you have to ask a bunch of strangers on the internet for advice I'd wonder about your skills. Unless you want to see if there's some cool tech that maybe you missed.

My sister and her husband are full-time sailors, right now somewhere in the south pacific. They went through a lot of gear testing and research before building their boat. They have picked out pretty much everything themselves; I would not trust gear on a voyage like that that i have not personally test.

Me, I backpack, and do the same thing. Everything in my pack has been tested under controlled conditions, I carry backups (map + compass to back up the GPS), backup stove if the primary fails, etc.

Not only do you have to have the right gear, you also have to know how to use it when tired, stressed, in the dark and in adverse weather.

Now if you're asking about unnecessary gear (entertainment, etc) then I can understand. But basic survival gear?

was in leaving a job I loved to take a job that sucked but paid a lot more. 2 years of that job almost killed me.

Now on the other hand, if you're really serious, take a handful of people in the new company out to lunch. Buy them pizza, and talk to them. About life, interests, girlfriends, families, and see if they're a good fit. Don't talk to your bosses, talk to your peers in the new company, and the people who would work for you. That's the people who can help you make the decision.

They're also very calorie dense; each MRE is about 2,000 calories. They're made for rangers toting 80# rucks 12 hours a day, not wannabes sitting in the living room.

MREs are OK for a few days, but after that they will mess with your internal plumbing too they are so loaded with preservatives.

You're much better off buying the semi-instant rice, noodles, and potatos at the grocery store, and paying attention to the nutrition information.

unreel a fiber optic cable to a surface station, much like a human climber with a rope. Not at all difficult.

I wonder about that.

Imagine the black eye to teh USADA if they lay out all their evidence, and it amounts to hearsay with no real proof, and the UCI thumbs its nose at them.

Lance retains his victories, pretty much clears his reputation, USADA looks like a bunch of wankers, and Lance still has his life.

The guy never gives up. There's a backstory to this that's not being told.

If each claim had to be accompanied by a $500 bond, to be forfeited in case the clam was false, the abuses would stop. The amount is irrelevant; the work required to post the bond would eliminate robo-claiming. It's illegal to robosign mortgages now; how about making it illegal to robosign all legal claims?