If only there were a way to search the world for information about such things...

You, 6 digits id dare to tell a 5 digit id about google? :-p

None of the devices in these links is compatible with my smart meter.

Here is a device that is compatible with my smart meter (uses ZigBee) but nobody is selling it yet :-s

*facepalm*

BlueInnovation energy monitors is a 2 piece device where you have to install something by the meter itself.

The smartmeter I have in my house has a transmitter compatible with something called "Home Area Network" (HAN) devices. It doesn't need anything installed in the meter to transmit the readings.

Once you acquire HAN-compatible power monitor, you have to call your electric provider and activate it to allow the smartmeter to send data to it.

I have found many references to such devices being sold but nobody actually selling them.

I got my smartmeter here in Texas more than a year ago. So far the best data I can get is delayed by 2 days and at 15 minute intervals.

There are some mythical devices called HAN that you are supposed to buy somewhere to use for instant monitoring inside your house but I have yet to find anybody selling them.

Have you ever used a relational database as the datastore for a big object oriented application?

If you do, you will find most of the complexity in your application will lie in all the hacks used to make your domain model work with a relational database.

You can see this working with fluent nhibernate: create a complex object model and then look at how the automapper bends over backwards to generate a relational database schema matching it (and don't show that schema to your DBA or he might get a heart attack)

I think one of NoSQL aims is to solve this issue by replacing the relational database with a datastore that handles objects straight without hacky schemas or ORM libraries.

In South America (and probably Europe) gasoline is heavily taxed compared to diesel so it is artificially way more expensive. They can't tax diesel like that because it would raise costs on public and cargo transportation.

In the US, diesel is taxed just the same as gasoline. Since its demand is just a fraction of gasoline, it is actually more expensive to produce and therefore costs more than premium gasoline.

The price gap has decreased in the last 10 years and is now just 4% in my zip code. There is also many more gas stations selling diesel.

I agree but for other reasons:

Software is already protected by by copyrights, having patent protection on software is double-dipping.

Patents on software don't make sense. THE COMPUTER ITSELF IS THE INVENTION and it is by definition, a multi-purpose machine. Patenting techniques you do in a computer is like patenting specific ways of driving a car, or combinations of musical notes.

Let's RTFR, or wait for Groklaw to dissect the ruling and publish their findings. So far Groklaw have shown Florian Muller tends to sensationalize these issues in a way they look really bad for Android while the opposite is true.

That's why you keep the DVD on the mail plan too...

Premium channels show original content series, about 4 new movies a month and a bunch of old ones. All this for $10 to $20 a month each.

In Netflix you get most of these old movies and others premium channels will never bother to play (been finding some great chinese and Thai movies there). And anything not available on streaming can come over the mail, one at a time.

So compare: the same 20 movies and original content over and over for $50+/month, or movies on demand and the rest over the mail for $16/month

Netflix streaming has pretty much made premium channels obsolete.

I disagree, Netflix streaming is comparable to PREMIUM CABLE. All these lame movies you find on HBO, STARZ, SHOWTIME, etc that you watch just because they are kinda ok and there is nothing else to watch you can get on netflix and play ON DEMAND by the hundredths.

So compare netflix, even at $16/month with having all the premium channels for $50+/month.

Over and over we hear about this "scrap and start over" concept. It sounds like a great idea but you are assuming you can do a better job than the guys before and more often than not you will be wrong.

I used to suggest it but now I know better. I have seen new devs with little experience passionately suggest so called "total refactoring". It has never ended well.

Having another pair of eyes on your code is a very good idea but this whole concept of everybody getting together and put somebody's work to shame is bad for team dynamics and a waste of time.

I rather have a team dynamic where any developer can pick up a task involving work on somebody else's code, this way code reviews just happen naturally.

As long as you don't count the costs of building it, decommissioning and storing nuclear waste for thousands of years.

My thoughts exactly. Sadly our Supreme Court has a history of wiping their asses with the constitution. If they have done their jobs, slavery and racial discrimination would have never happened.

Supreme Court judges can be impeached, but that is very unlikely to ever happen.

Copyright should be long enough to encourage creating works for profit, and no longer

Agreed, the problem is copyright licensing income is one of the main passive income streams enjoyed by rich people including politicians, judges and lawyers. They will always legislate to keep, strengthen or expand their income streams.

I got an smartphone with pay as you go service. Just bought an HTC myTouch from newegg for around $180 and put my AT&T gophone card on it. Works fine.

Now if you use lots of data you will get raped with their pay as you go rates. In my case I use all these free wifi spots all over and complement it by buying 10Mb for $5 every 30 days or so.