Not sure how to answer this one since I use Dropbox. Everything uploaded to Dropbox exists locally on my HDD as well as having a second copy on one of the other computers in my household with enough disk space. At one point I had 3 computers all synchronized with Dropbox. So 100% is stored locally AND in the cloud. I know Slashdot loves to hate on the cloud, but most of the arguments against it don't apply to Dropbox. If Dropbox were to disappear tomorrow, I would still have my data (and still backed up in multiple locations). There is no migrating away, since all I do is just upload to the new service without having to retrieve anything from Dropbox (I already have it). From a disaster recovery standpoint, the only scenario where I am exposed is if Dropbox disappears followed by my house burning down destroying every hard drive I own beyond recovery. The chances of this are very slim and if I was really that worried about it, I could set up another computer outside of my house (say at a trusted friends house on the other side of the country) and have Dropbox synchronize there as well. The only valid argument is the privacy one, since Dropbox theoretically could access any data I have uploaded to their service. They claim it is encrypted and they don't look at it, but that doesn't mean they couldn't. The solution here is to not upload anything I wouldn't want them to see. Some also have had success with uploading a TrueCrypt volume into Dropbox.

Thanks for the advice. I always bring up my history of fainting and request to lie down and usually stay down for a little while afterwards since it hasn't always been during the draw that the lights have gone out (Once it was 15 minutes later back in the waiting room). My experiences have all varied. Some have turned out OK, others tortuous, so I know some of it is in my head. At the end of the day, I just need to man up and deal with it for the sake of my own health.

As someone who frequently faints or comes extremely close while having blood drawn, I am extremely excited about this tech. I hate getting blood drawn so much that I have a tendency to avoid scheduling routine physicals, which I know is not smart since yearly physicals are so crucial to spotting trouble before things get too bad. I don't just hate passing out (or nearly), but I hate needles in general, so having that needle stuck in my arm for the duration of the draw (or the frequent misses and retries) along with the whole losing consciousness is torture for me. Finger-prick was never a problem for me, though. I imagine I'm not alone, so if this means more people doing some preventative maintenance, then it likely also means less emergency room visits and major procedures resulting from ignored or uncaught conditions that would have otherwise been easily treated.

I just hope that my insurance will accept this method. I just got a letter in the mail from them the other day reminding me that they do not work with all labs.

PC Load Letter? What the fuck does that mean?!?!

I picked Canada, because as your average boring non-resident, I feel that if Canada felt the need to go to all of the effort to spy on me specifically, then I must be doing something of great significance in the world. This of course is based on the assumption that Canada doesn't have a blanket policy to spy on everyone. We know the US spies on everyone, so being spied on by them isn't so special. Russia I can assume also probably spies on as many people as they can, maybe with a little cold war affinity for spying on Americans, so even though it is a little bad-ass to have Russia's attention, still nothing too special. Same goes for China and Cuba. With the UK, while they probably are a similar case to the US (probably a bit envious), I wouldn't want them spying on me at all. Too much risk of their agents seducing my wife.

The key disparity here is that you are assuming being a "leader" on a project means you were a project manager or officially managing others in some formal fashion. I don't think that is what any of these interviewers were asking. You don't have to be in an official leadership role to lead. It could be as simple as leading by example, or it could mean that others look to you for guidance or direction. Did you ever take any extra initiative to accomplish something new or particularly challenging that no one else had that guts to take on?

Now if they really were asking about formal leadership roles (i.e. Manager), then you should have given a similar explanation to what you posted in your question (except maybe without the whole, "I like being a follower", part). You get more satisfaction from solving engineering challenges hands-on than you do being a manager. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. However, some may worry that because you desire to stay in relatively the same place for a long time, that you will still want regular pay increases beyond cost of living adjustments, which means you will be very expensive relative to your peers. This may be OK assuming you can justify your larger salary and by justify, I mean prove on a regular basis. But this then brings me back to my first point about leadership vs. managing. Your greater level of experience should translate into you being a leader amongst your peers and explains why you have been asked such questions during interviews.

I will agree on this one, and I speak from experience. I travel a lot for work, and as such, rent a lot of cars. Every week I get to fumble around with whatever asinine "state of the art" infotainment system each manufacturer has come up with. Lately I have seen Toyata, Ford and GM's take on this. I have seen none that are better than just plain old buttons. Even just forgetting the fact that there is no tactile feedback for a second, the actual UI of the system is not conducive to operating with quick glances. The make it such a "rich" interface that I can't easily tell what is info and what is an actionable button. Then add in the fact that once you find a button and tap it, the whole screen changes and you have a whole new set of information and buttons to try to process (and god forbid the buttons stay in the same place or follow and common pattern from screen to screen). With the old classic buttons, I could generally hop in the car for the first time, take a quick look over the dash to figure out where volume and seek are and how to adjust the A/C, get those all set once, and then from then on, adjusting on-the-fly was easy, since I had already figured out everything that needed to be figured out. Not possible with these touch screens and I often catch myself fiddling while driving (which I really try to avoid, but these tend to lure me in much more easily).

Ford decided to take the idiocy to a new level, though. And I guess this makes sense given their relationship with Microsoft. So Ford was probably hearing all of these complaints about no tactile feedback and needing buttons and they say, "you know what, you're right, and boy do we have the solution for you!" They decided to put buttons in, but instead of regular old buttons (cause those are for losers!) they use touch sensitive buttons built into a textured panel. They function similar to those buttons that are not really buttons that some laptop and TV manufacturers started using a couple years ago (which I HATE) and the main Android buttons on many smartphones.So it looks like your old buttons, with each function having a dedicated location and being raised up from the dash with painted on labels/logos, but a little slicker since there are no gaps/seems around the buttons since nothing needs to be pressed in. At first glance, you think, neat, Ford gets it. Then you try to use it like your old school button interface, and that's where it all breaks down. You feel for the radio station seek buttons. There is a + and a -. You what to seek up, but your fingers find the down first .Ok, just gotta move over one and I got it, you think as you blindly feel around. But it's too late! you have already touch + and the radio station has switched in the wrong direction. You try to correct, but this time, when you again try to reach without taking your eyes off the road, you brush against the thermostat, and you've set it to full blast hot. An it's July. In Arizona. So now you are stuck literally sweating to the oldies while you barrel down the highway in a car you are not very familiar with. I'm sure if I owned these cars, I would get used to them, and it would be a little safer over time, but is it any better than what we had before

I'm OK with including a touch screen, but it can't be the only way to interact. It has to be a combination of buttons and touch. Buttons should be there for all of the standard, commonly used functions like volume, input change (i.e. FM, AM, SAT, AUX), seek, etc. If you want to then make all of the audio tweaks (Bass, treble, balance), car setup, device pairing, or other odd functions, sure, put them on the touch screen, since those are things I will typically only do when I'm not driving. Or if it's something like answering the phone, it just becomes a big touch screen button that I can mash with my hand quickly without the need for much accuracy. I think some manufacturers get this, or at least used to get this, and have done what I suggest (My parent's VW has such a system) but so many are getting carried away with turning the car into an iPad that they forget where they are putting it (a car) and what you will also be doing while trying to operate it (driving).

So if he is admitting that he needs financial help with the defense of his current court battle, it would be a pretty reasonable assumption that he does not have the funds to initiate a second court battle. Sounds like a pretty empty threat, if you ask me.

Does that mean that the several miles of the turnpike that run parallel to the Newark airport runway can now be considered "Little Autobahn"? For those unfamiliar with the area, planes litterally take of an land right next to the turnpike. When I'm flying into EWR, I know we are in our final approach when I can see the turnpike.

My mileage did vary. Not sure what the % over invoice was, but it was right on the mark for the "Great Price" listed on TrueCar.com. While I did have to go to the dealership and find the exact car we were interested in before we got the price, they did allow me to contact a competing (non-Costco) dealership to counter the offer. At this point I was not under any obligation to accept the Costco price. In fact the competing dealership matched the offer, however they could not match the additional $500 Costco gift card that was being offered (limited time offer after completing a survey). The competing dealershiop gave up the sale at that point and then we signed for the car with the Costco dealership. Only dealer incentives going on were for interest rates, but not for the specific model I wanted. I was able to get that interest rate, though, when negotiating with the finance manager. Each dealership may be different and if there are limited time dealership incentives, then yes, you may be able to get a better/different deal. I guess it still goes back to how hard you negotiate, even with the Costco pricing (maybe I just contradicted my original point).

If you are a Costco member, this is the reality. Costco pre-negotiates prices with participating dealerships and the price is just a hair above invoice. There is no haggling, no back and forth. Just show your membership, then they go grab the Costco price, end of negotiation*. Even if you're not a Costco member, the internet has made negotiating new car prices much easier with sites like TrueCar.com. They publish what people actually paid for new cars and give you a guide to what is a a good deal (this is how I knew the Costco price was a really good deal). You may still have to do some theatrics like walking out and saying your going to see what the dealership across town has to say, but you have a lot more leverage then you had in the past.

* The negotiation on the sale price is done, but if you plan to finance, the negotiation of financing terms (length, interest, extra servces, etc.) begins and can still be a pretty slimy feeling experience. When it comes to financing, I feel like I never know how much I'm paying each month until I get the first bill.

During Hurricane Sandy, despite not having power for 12 days straight, my Verizon FiOS was up and running the whole time. As long as I plugged the main FiOS modem (the big white panel they mount on the wall of your basement or wherever), router and internet/TV capable devices into my generator, I was set. This was the case with most of the people I talked to who had both FiOS and a generator. I did talk to one FiOS customer that didn't have service even after the power was back. For whatever reason, it seemed that Verizon's lines were much more durable that the power company's. Those with Comcast, on the other hand, had nothing from the beginning of the outage until well after the power came back on.

AUTObuntu was great until I upgraded to the latest release "sanguine sedan". They completely changed the UI from the steering wheel and pedals to a small RC car like controller. They claim it's to make the experience more consistent between RC cars and real cars, but I'm really having trouble adjusting. I'm on the verge of switching to "Auto Mint".

This only has to do the the PreCheck program. If you sign-up for pre-check you actually don't know when you will be allowed to use the expedited security line. You only find out after you get to the airport and scan your boarding pass before you even get in line for security. My colleagues that have it actually complain that they hardly ever get the go-ahead for expedited security. Even if the odds of getting the go-ahead were better, if there is still a chance you won't get the go-ahead, you can't take advantage of the time savings that the program allows. If I get to the airport 30 minutes before my flight and then get denied expedited security, I'm going to miss my flight. That means you have to get to the airport extra early no matter what. If I do get expedited security, I still end up just sitting in the terminal for the for the same amount of time I would have otherwise spent in line for security. Granted, I could get food/drinks, read, do some work, etc. in the terminal while I couldn't while in line for security.

Now if I could know in advance whether I get PreCheck or not, then I could take advantage of the time savings more effectively. Get an extra 30 min. of sleep, squeeze an extra meeting in at the end of the day, schedule an earlier flight so I get home and see my family sooner.

The danger here, though, is if someone can create a counterfeit bar-code. Then those who have not been through the up front screening required of the PreCheck program (and there is a lot of it. I won't do it just for the privacy concerns) can falsify PreCheck qualifications and better hide contraband.

But you know what, even as a very frequent air traveler, I find the whole PreCheck (at least right now) to be awfully inefficient. Hardly anyone has it and even fewer qualify the day of, so that is one extra x-ray machine with 2-3 extra TSA agents sitting idle, while the rest of the lines are backed up even further. The only way this becomes worthwhile for the airport is if there is enough PreCheck passengers to keep a constant flow of people through the PreCheck line. However, with the Orwellian sign-up process and the fact that you can't rely on whether you will get to use it (see points above), it is really hard to say if it will take-off. They tried doing this several years ago with Clear (run by a private company) but that was a bust (I think there were many additional factors there, though).

30mbps at max is not fast

Next year's test should be much more interesting since both Verizon FiOS and Comcast just started offering 300mbps. Granted those are the most expensive plans, but my current FiOS connection of 25mbps (which usually speedtests at 30mbps) is being upgraded to 50mbps for no additional charge. Automatic speed bumps are occurring across the FiOS lineup, so the $/mbps ratio is becomiing more beneficial to users.