Nobody making $210k lives in downtown LA. :-) Just sayin'. :-D

You have basically an entire music studio in your house (a drum kit, grand piano, etc), a workshop (sewing kit, wood shop, etc), an industrial printer (why?), a gym, as well as space for storage... And since your christmas tree doesn't fit (my family used to put a table in storage to make room for the tree), you are *UNCOMFORTABLE*?

Your requirements for being comfortable are substantially different than 95% of the world.

To be honest, he's probably either in New York or San Francisco, based on his salary as a developer. A 2 bedroom apartment in both places costs about $2,500/mo. $1,000/mo will get you a shabby one-room bachelor thing in SF and a below-ground parking spot in NYC.

But, $3k/mo will get a decent 3br apartment just across the water, so I guess it is a matter of priorities.

A couple of things come to mind beyond your current financial situation.

1) Dual CCIE is the absolute pinnacle of the field. Out of 50 million people in the world who do IT work, the 600-ish people in the world who have this combination of certifications are the top of their field. It generally takes 8-10 years of experience and dedicated study to get to this level. Did you think you would just walk in and get a CCIE in 3 months? The lab itself costs several thousand $$ and requires you to fly to California, where you do an 8-hour long practical exam. It's the top cert among Cisco's 15-18 different certs. Most people get at least 4 others before a CCIE.

2) A quick google on this topic turns up this quote, which is very apt: "Given equal intellectual capabilities and work ethic, 20 years of hands-on costs a lot more to an employer than 3 years of hands-on with 2 CCIEs, in most cases. Also, in most cases, a better investment." Ask your friend what his real world experience and the number of times he's deployed large scale complex WANs and various other technologies and remember that having that experience with dozens of networks is what makes him valuable. The cert is just the proof.

3) If you switch fields, you will start at $50-60k. That's what they pay network engineers with no experience. After 10 years and 6 or 8 certifications leading up to a CCIE, the median salary is $165k. Making $210 is very lucrative. I would find ways to save money now, rather than try to switch careers.

4) Your dream that somehow computer networking is immune to H1B is asinine. They will be outsourced and replaced at the same rate, with the same drivers and the same goals and outcomes.

Fuel cells are awful.

End of story.

Hydrogen is a volatile gas that is EXTREMELY difficult to store and transport, making it very impractical.

Fuel cells aren't terribly efficient.

They're equally bulky and weighty as modern batteries, considering the hydrogen storage.

They have to be replaced more often (because hydrogen is very hard on materials).

Not a fan..

Tesla has been using a 7,104 cell Lithium Ion pack for years.

Elon Musk sounded less than impressed by the electric cars from other companies like Toyota, Mercedes and GM.

What do you think of the Tesla as a competitor? Do you feel like you are playing catch-up? What things can GM bring to the table that Tesla cannot?

What about batteries? Have you considered that you may end up needing to source batteries from Tesla themselves in the future? Are there plans for gaining access to suppliers in this field as there will likely be a persistent shortage of good batteries for cars in the future?

It sounds like someone did and he got canned for it.

Get over yourself.

You're the obstinate one in this thread.

It's unlikely it could ever orbit, but frankly, the re-entry technology is interesting and could be useful for a variety of types of actual orbital missions.

No, but refusing to make the sawmill DOES make it less likely to come up with an automobile.

You're talking like a creationist trying to deny evolution...

How many people die every year on rollercoasters?

Any idea?

Hint: It's more than 4.

that's the point of this design. By flying the rocket to altitude on a subsonic plane, the cost is not 1000 times, it's more like 2 times.

Would you pay double to get there in 4 hours?

Why are we whining about this in the first place? It's interesting research.

Our cultural risk aversion is a serious problem.

Suborbital flights are a great way to travel in planes, but there are a lot of technical problems to re-entry from suborbital planes, under control.

This is a very novel way to do it and deserves further research, frankly.

No they didn't.

It was widely believed that materials were not strong/light enough to build a practical plane that wasn't more than a toy (and they weren't until the wide use of aluminum, which wasn't available then).

And suborbital flights are the BEST way to fly between continents. Research that goes this direction is good.