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Comment Re:First World, First World Problems (Score 1) 291

You have OBVIOUSLY never been to a real third world country, or anywhere even close. What you call an unmaintained road is like a forty lane superhighway in some places.

Yet some places in my own state have roads that make crappy paths in the planes of Africa look like 4 lane super highways. Seriously on some of these official roads you need high clearance and real 4WD (posi or locking diffs on both axles) while on others you may be fording a river, bottoming out on rocks (even with a high clearance vehicle), or running over trees in the middle of the road. These aren't off road trail but official signed roads but are minimum or unmaintained roads. I am sure there are worse roads out there than these but at that point it is like having a conversation about who's shit smells the best while ignoring the fact that it is all shit.

Comment Re:Spoiled much? (Score 1) 291

I make use of rather large publicly available GIS data sets that can be pulled in on demand. Think of it kind of like Google maps on steroids, then toss in that my wife also like to watch streaming shows while I work and a 6Mbit connection would choke (I use to have a business class one and it did choke and become basically unusable). The largest of these data sets are usually the LIDAR, ground cover, and high res aerial photography which can all easily go into the 10s of Gigs in size for a state. Yes I am one of those people who regularly goes over 1TB in downloads a month, and all of it is legal usage. Just because you can't effectively make use of a high speed connection doesn't mean others can't.

Comment Re:Oh noes! Strategic Syrup Alert! (Score 1) 529

There's no poisonous snakes native to Nova Scotia dontchano, so what ya be needing a gun for?

I hear hunting is quite popular in Canada so may be moose, ducks, or the most awful thing from Canada ever that need to be gunned down in mass.

If this is terrorism and Canada decides to wrongly go after something I suggest the Canadian Geese as that would at least be useful.

Comment Re:Kinda funny how taxes set back the internet (Score 1) 324

Hey no one I have voted for currently holds office above the city and county level of government and those are the governments that seemingly are least likely to be regularly violating my rights. I keep trying to elect people who won't violate my rights at the federal level but people around me just like a governor who can't seem to find his ass with both hands, or a congressman who is a war hawk who got to carry the nuclear football while in the service.

Comment Re: Nah, this is just stage 1 (Score 1) 324

A bond is an IOU, but US Treasury Bonds are special in that they will not default on them, but they are not the same thing as pallets of $100 bills sitting in a warehouse. The part of these discussion I take issue with is the X thousands of dollars per citizen in unfunded liabilities. While based in fact it is the amount that would be needed to be taken right now to cover expenses for the next 75 years assuming no change in incoming revenue or decrease in projected benefits. It is just a big scary number used to show how out of control government spending is.

The more immediate problems is that for a long time when social security was taking in more than it sent out it purchased US Treasury Bonds which provided money to the general fund which was spent on things and that spending on various other programs hasn't gone down. Now that is starting to change and social security is no longer taking in more in tax than it is sending out (the trust fund is still increasing due to interest) so there is less available in the general fund. In the future money from the general fund will need to be diverted to pay back the US Treasury Bonds as social security cashes them in. At some point in the future the social security trust fund will have redeemed all of its US Treasury Bonds and if nothing has been done social security would be able to pay ~75% to ~80% of promised benefits with what it takes in. The interesting thing is the month that that transition happens is that it would cost the same amount out of the general fund to continue to fund benefits at 100% as it did the previous month since the redeemed US Treasury Bonds used to pay benefits were payed out of the general fund. And if you think I a full of shit there is always the first few pages of the social security trustees report that they put out each year that you can access that has the exact dates. If you really want to get into the details just read the full report but I think only people who are actuaries would enjoy such a thing.

Comment Re:As some one recently pointed out to me (Score 1) 384

More Americans have married Kim Kardashian than have died from Ebola.

Given that choice I think I would take Ebola. I would be less likely to have some horrible disease.

Seriously with Eboal I would only have one horrible disease, but being married to any of the Kardashians would ensure that I end up with at least half a dozen horrible ones if not more. Add in that I would have to look at that awful face and deal with that horrendous personality and I would be begging to have my insides turn into a jelly and leak out of every orifice.

Comment Re:Until we upgrade the dumb bunnies (Score 1) 384

No. Bombing things in the Middle East is always the solution to our problems over there. The reason it hasn't worked is that there is a lot of sand and it blows around so covers up our good work. We just need to drop more bombs more frequently. I mean we have some MOABs that could be put to some good use and would make some reasonable holes that would take a while to fill back in. Fill the air with B2s, C130s, F117s, and B52s so it blots out the sun and bomb away.[/sarcasm]

Personally I thing we should let the various individuals over there sort it out since what ever side we help is just going to piss at least one other side off. There are Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims, Kurds, Persians, Arabs, Jews, Palestinians, and a hand full of other more minor groups, not to mention the various nationalities (no sure how jingoistic they are) and it seems that if all combinations aren't right then you need to kill the other guy. Now add in that they seem to have the concept of blood feud and this seems like something any rational person should stay away from. It sounds cruel but if they want to kill each other let them, if they want to be left the hell alone we should help evacuate civilans who don't want to be caught in the middle of fighting over some desert but other than that no involvement.

Comment Re:Wonder what brand is best now... Intel? (Score 1) 101

So far so good with the Intel ones I got almost 2 years ago. Got 2 120GB drives for OS and application drives and they have been chugging along just fine. I went for the reliability instead of max performance and didn't want to pay more for the Samsung drives which now looks like it was the better move.

Comment Re:Why a government site? (Score 1) 120

Well now I understand the somewhat cryptic letter about the passenger side airbag recall I received a few weeks back. It just mentioned there was a problem with the passenger side airbag with my car and that the dealer did not have the parts on had at the moment to service the recall for all vehicles and that I would be sent a letter later informing me of when I should schedule an appointment to take care of the issue. And for those wondering this is for an E46 BMW ('98-'05 3 series). So go pester your dealership instead they will know if your vehicle is affected.

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