Visual Basic went to .Net five versions ago. It was acceptable to take VB to mean classic VB in 2003, but in 2014, you have to say so if you mean the old stuff. The VB6 development environment doesn't even run on any supported operating system. VBA is still around, but it's always been incorrect to refer to VBA as VB.

I think it's interesting that you know Visual Basic, but want to get into C#. My first question would be "Why?". Both run on the same framework and both are equally capable. All you're doing is learning new syntax to do things you already know how to do. After that question is the comment "You pretty much already know C#". Sure, it's a different language from VB, but that's the easy part. It uses the same tools and libraries, so you know 95% of it already.

High-Frequency Trading

You are absolutely 100 percent technically correct. But whoever gets their power at hydro rates is the consumer of hydro power. If Robert Moses was shut down, the customers paying the lower rate would either have to pay more or stop receiving power (or the person who wrote the contract would lose money). The people paying coal rates would be easy to serve by bringing power from coal plant at other points on the grid. So, for all intents and purposes, they are getting the power from Robert Moses.

We could extend this process to things like carbon credits and any future non-renewable tax. The providers would only be able to sell a certain quantity of "penalty-exempt" power. That would drive the market for that power, even thought the customer may not receive exactly the electron they paid for. So, there is some value to speaking about power as if the whole grid concept didn't exist.

The factory will be 30 miles from one of the largest hydroelectric power plants on the planet. Unfortunately, it's more "economically advantageous" to transport that power to the New York City area and backfill Western New York with local power. Most of the local power comes from the Huntley Generating Station, which is a gas turbine plant that has been converted to coal. To add to the CO2 concerns, the way to use coal in a gas turbine plant is to crush the coal up so fine that it can be injected into the turbines using nozzles that were designed for methane. That makes Huntley one of the dirtiest places on earth.

As for nuclear, it will be more than 100 miles from the nearest nuclear power plant and that's only a small 600MW plant - the smallest in New York.

So, the biggest solar panel factory in the world is almost certain to be powered entirely by coal.

They didn't have enough cash. The reason they are building the plant in Buffalo is because New York State as paying for most of the up front capital. Before Musk, they had to find creative ways to grow the company and were likely to get trampled in the market by a competitor with the money to make market moves that Silevo couldn't afford to do. With Musk behind them, they can grow at whatever pace they can convince Musk they can be profitable at.

He's mostly right in practice. If you take an entire semester worth of AP credits and graduate early, then you save money. However, most schools have a full-time rate that applies for any amount of credit hours over twelve. Going from 21 hours down to 13 your freshman year isn't going to save you anything. Going from 21 to 5 will save money by allowing you to register as a part-time student, but that my effect room and board arrangements. Trying to graduate a semester early is a possibility, but some classes are very difficult to take in the other semester from the one their "supposed" to be taken in, plus you'll have to make up the remained of the credits that you didn't AP out of to add up to an entire semester. If you only took one AP, that's almost the same work as just doing a four year degree in three and a half, so the savings is mostly attributed to your hard work, not the AP.

I took AP calc when I was in high school and I got a four an the exam. I just took it again in college for the easy A, that was a bigger benefit for me than skipping it since it wouldn't have saved any money. An A thrown into my GPA was worth more to me than a few hours of down time in the middle of the day.

More than half of all movies currently can't be streamed. How can a delivery format go away if content providers won't move most of the content to alternate media?

While I agree Uber and similar services are skirting and even openly defying regulations, these protests are self-defeating. The public will see the cab drivers as greedy and annoying.

Uber needs to simply sit back and do nothing about it. The less said the better.

In the U.S. these protests won't happen, unless the owners pay the drivers to protest. American cab drivers can't afford to take a day off to protest. The cab drivers are probably making less than the Uber drivers..

Article: The car won't so much be hovering in free space as "a little bit away" from the road. This is more likely to mean microns than inches...

Summary: We aren't talking Jetson's flying car, more like a car that merely hovers "a little bit away" from the road. Probably a few inches...

To me hovering a few microns sounds like hydroplaning on purpose. Sounds like a great idea if you never want to turn or stop.

Uber and Lyft are essentially third-world Jitney services, with a high-tech veneer.

The difference is the driver has been vetted by the company to some degree and there is a social reputation system in place.

Drivers are typically under-insured and under-licensed vs. regulatory requirements.

In California, for example, drivers-for-hire have to be specifically licensed, and carry $1M liability insurance. Uber provides a $100K "umbrella" for the benefit of passengers, "just in case" the driver isn't insured as required by the company. (But the required insurance level is far less than that required by the state.) The car, as well, needs to be registered with the state (TCP). (Unless a taxi, which is regulated locally).

Certainly, taxi and limo companies have a stake in keeping the status quo. That does not change the facts about under-insurance and under-licensing. So, they do have a legitimate beef about unfairness and protection of the public. This also works in their self-interested to limit competition, though.

If we don't have enough taxis, or limitation of taxis is artificially boosting rates, change the local regulations to allow more taxis. Let's have a more fundamental public debate and solution. Sure, taxi and limo companies are greedy. So are Uber and Lyft. Let's work-out what is really best for the public.

Uber/Lyft is "solving the problem" by ignoring it, and avoided a public/political debate by slipping in through a (non-existent, IMO) loophole.

On a Bendix axle plant production line. On an Altair. Hardness tester. Test hardness. Spray red or green paint.

Project got dropped in my lap, no software had been written. Ship date had arrived. Boss told a white lie and sent me and a technician to "install the equipment, and make some final adjustments".

The "final adjustments" were writing the software.

Oh. He told one more white lie. As far as the plant personnel were concerned, we were three days late. We didn't know we were three days late. They started yelling at us as soon as we arrived.

They found me a table and chair, and I set-up the Altair next to the inspection line. The line was down (no pressure!) but it's still damn noisy in there!

Plus: the two machine operators were there, twiddling their thumbs. I got to ask questions like "how would you like this button to work?" (WHAT design?)

Plus Two: The Middlesex Diner.

It doesn't really matter. I was responding to a statement that said that if something receives signals and fires thrusters, then it must be a computer. Any definition that broad would be indistinguishable from "circuit" and would make the word "computer" redundant. I hate it when language evolves to a point where it's hard to express thoughts accurately.

This is the same problem I have with people accepting the phrase "I could care less" as meaning "I don't care". It makes language much harder to use. Imagine trying to explain the meaning of that phrase to someone learning English, they would come away thinking that each collection of words has some fungible meaning that is totally separate from the meanings of the individual word and the rules or grammar.

A collection of discreet electronic components hardly qualifies as a computer. Receiving radio signals was something done long before the first computer was invented.

Serious answer: it's kinda sad, because the guy obviously is suffering from dementia of some sort.

Yes, he and his wife both seem to be racist jerks that don't realize that. But in the past, he's had the mental facilities to stop himself before he said something stupid or inciting. I think it just spills out and he has no control over it. This is apparent from the conflicting statements he makes from one sentence to the next.

Dementia: turning racist jerks into really racist jerks.