The big one is data transformation. Most companies don't have some kind of seamless integration from department to department and system to system. Each department has some sort of input, and most output multiple subsets of that data to different places/departments/people in different formats like as reports, as data loads into other systems, or a smaller data set for further work. Excel allows non-IT folk the ability to handle this work without having to ask a techie every time they want to make a change, which can be frequent. The issue gets even worse when in-house IT departments manage costs via inter-company transactions (cost quotes) for their efforts. No one's going to pay six figures for a rigid implementation that requires IT involvement and revision costs when they can do it in 5 minutes a week in excel. That's not an exaggeration either, its my bread and butter and a real world example to a real scenario.

I regularly get green bar typewriter-style reports for details I need on a quarterly basis. I also must send details on printed reports that they check off manually, printed a file I could email them of course.

Five years ago, I had supply documentation for an audit where the union auditors didn't have computers. We had to print out 16,000 legal-sized pages of documentation and mail it to them.

Most commercial and large-scale shipping endeavors (hell, even UPS) require the sender to insure their package if they want coverage in case of loss. This is the same with commercial container ships, and I suspect the same with airline freight.

Really, not much more can be said. A 'ridesharing' service could still exist without their software, but their software couldn't exist without a ridesharing service.

Excellent question.

I saw Dr. Grandin on one of the NatGeo shows. What a great role model for people struggling with autism, as well as women interested in STEM. Well, anyone interested in STEM really. This is a much better interview choice than that crap earlier this week.

Holy mother of god that's expensive. My condo is 3 times that size and my ENTIRE housing costs (including HOA dues, power, cable, mortgage, water) are $950/month.

The problem is you're not comparing based on equivalent lifestyles but by 5x salary. The cost per square foot of housing in SF/SV area is between 5-10x most places in the country. So, in order to be equivalent to the house Bob bought for $250k, you're spending $1.25m->$2.5m on a home, not possible on Alex's income. $250k in the midwest or most smaller cities (~1m pop) buys a LOT of house.

I chose a condo because I didn't want to have to deal with the upkeep of a yard, actually. Now, I kinda wish I'd chosen a house because I don't feel right getting a dog unless I have a backyard, and I'd like a garage for a workshop. The house general price per sqare foot in Charlotte ranges from $100-$200/sqft, SF is $800-1000/sqft. I was just trying to give an example for perspective, to retort the parent post. Being generous, cost of living in those kinds of locations is 4 times as high, so the higher wages (and taxes) rarely make up for it.

I'll say though, one big benefit of living in one of these expensive locations is future mobility. If you manage to suck it up and pay off significant chunks of your mortgage rather than refinancing repeatedly over a 15 year period, it allows you to move wherever you want to in the future. If I really tried I could pay off my condo in 7-8 years, but it wouldn't really add much to my mobility, because the equity would be barely a down payment in one of the expensive cities and I'd have to start all over again. I do get more room for early investing early though due to no major debt.

No, the difference is probably way more than $40k cost of living. I live in a low cost medium-sized city (Charlotte). I have a 1200sqft condo less than 20 minutes from downtown, less than 20 minutes from work, and the best school district in the city. My condo was $120k at the peak of the housing boom brand spanking new. Most houses of 2000-3000sqft range from $250k to $500k depending on quality. You're lucky to find equivalent housing in an equivalent area in SV/SF 3 times that price, unless you're all the way in Sacramento.

Take a look at this chart to get some perspective:
http://www.businessinsider.com...

Good point, languages don't change much. I guess I'd compare the certs I deal with more to something like a IEEE membership. While memberships to professional organizations can feel kind of scammy, their seminar/etc requirements kind of force you to stay on top of recent events in the industry.

I agree entirely. I play at 2k with a pair of SLI'd 970's, and have been playing Witcher 3 lately. The hair looks phenomenal with hairworks OFF, looks like ass with it on, regardless of graphics settings.

Certs can be used as a form of upkeep for veterans as well.

I work in payroll, where laws and regulations change every single year. If you've been in the industry for 20 years, a good way to ensure you've kept up with the times is to pursue a cert and refresh your knowledge. This also tells the employer that your knowledge has recently been updated on the topic.

Not all experience is good experience. People that have been in my industry for 20+ years without keeping up with the times like to store junk in dozens of file cabinets because they haven't kept up with record retention policy changes and digital format inclusions.

Sounds like you need to pick up Cities Skylines. It takes SC5 out back and punishes it with impunity. Very happy with my purchase of that game.

We need more information to determine if the facebook power budget is excessive. Was this a Starbucks latte? A Tim Hortons Latte? A caribou coffee latte? Maybe it was the environmentally friendly post-processed kopi-luwak shit latte?

That's a good point, something I hadn't thought about. I'm a daily reader and never made it a habit to look over there so I commonly missed polls, but from the perspective of a non-daily reader having it over there made it more readily accessible.

Based on your comment, its possible that poll participation could drop even in direct story view because it only has daily exposure instead of weekly exposure.