And since SDXC cards are available at ~ $.40/GB (up to 256GB) addon storage is competitive with 2.5" SSD's in price if not performance. It would be nice if the internal SSD was about 4x that size though so you could have more programs than the base installed, but that would add ~$40 to the price which would make it too expensive to compete with Chromebooks.

Both the Department of Labor and the courts disagree with your assessment.

The actual job duties themselves, not the job title, not the method of payment (hourly vs salary), and not the contract, determine if an individual worker is exempt from overtime rules.

This has been challenged time and time again in the courts. The concept of a "working foreman" is often mentioned since management is exempt from overtime. If the individual can show that at least half the time is spent on non-management tasks they are not exempt. If you spend 49% of your time or less doing management tasks you are not exempt. Even if your job title is "Managing Director", even if your contract calls you an exempt worker.

Other companies frequently fight it claiming that since they pay on an annual salary basis rather than an hourly basis they don't track it and therefore don't have to pay. These arguments lose.

Many companies like to skirt around the law since it saves money. Many companies (wrongly) claim that workers on an annual salary are exempt from overtime. Many companies (wrongly) specify that a position is exempt from overtime when legally it should not be. Even if you are paid on a regular salary instead of hourly the company is still obligated by FLSA overtime regulations.

If in doubt, make a phone call to the department of labor or whatever your state's equivalent is. They can ask a few questions and determine your status. Businesses violating the law are generally forced to pay back wages to the individuals and back taxes to the government. Since government really hates to miss tax money they tend to enforce this whenever discovered.

Not really, for streaming writes a HDD is only about 1/3rd the speed of these drives (WD Caviar Black 1TB, 150MB/s sustained streaming write vs Intel 335 at 450MB/s streaming writes).

At least here in Ohio they'd get their transmission charge, which is roughly half of the cost of residential power, not bad for doing nothing but line maintenance =)

Residential installations also require fewer transmission system upgrades which can be a significant factor in overall costs. It's one of the reasons my mind boggles when utilities complain about net metering, the power is going to be produced and consumed on the local portion of the grid which is unlikely to require any new capital improvements to accommodate the solar generation until solar reaches stupid high concentrations whereas adding the same amount of total capacity at a remote location is going to cost them megabucks to build new transmission and distribution capacity.

If you're a utility you have your panels set up so that they rotate to face the sun

Nope, it's more economical to just stagger your layout if you want multiple inclinations, the cells are less expensive than installation in the western world, let alone expensive helio-tracking systems that are capital and maintenance intensive. The only solar tracking systems done at scale that I'm aware of are solar thermal plants, and even there the newer plants are single axis.

You don't need to do anything to get moist meat in an Akorn or any other Kamado, just cook to proper IT and it will be great. Last year I did previously frozen bird with 5% solution which is basically wet brined and no other treatment except some spices on the skin and it turned out great, the secret was pulling it when the breast reached 155.

The solution to not enough height is to spatchcock the bird, there's plenty of grate area to fit it.

how can anyone do that to the English language...

The correct response to that is:

The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

Nope, that battle has already been fought. That would constitute compelled speech.

They can compel the company to provide information (such as source code) for their current data. Subpoenas have been doing that for decades.

They can compel the company to help them perform certain research.

They can even use NSLs to compel the company to intercept certain communications.

But at least so far, they cannot compel the company to modify their product to become defective.They still need to do that themselves, commonly by intercepting shipments or less commonly modifying chips inside the supply chain. Note that both routes are considered clandestine, they don't compel the business to intentionally release a faulty product, instead they just sabotage the results.

You started the troll so well with your first paragraph.

At least the remaining portion was fun to read. I'm not quite sure how Sony would need to sell out to Isreal before joining Hollywood, that one is confusing. The claims that the NSA is secretly beholden to Israeli Military was fun. The claim that Saudi Arabia and Egypt are under US control made me especially laugh.

Thanks for the entertainment.

On the other hand, I've heard advice that, if you're unavoidably going to hit an elk at highway speeds, you should slam on the accelerator to improve the odds that they'll bounce over the car rather than come in through the windshield. Not sure I buy it, but...

Myth busted

Nope, they have fought for decades to avoid that label. The were given the label "Information Service" and that makes all the difference in the world. That enables them to issue poison packets when they suspect things they don't like, to cancel services to people, to double-dip and sometimes triple-dip for communications as seen in cases like Netflix, and more. It has helped them evade lawsuits about discriminatory service on the basis of customers potentially being slightly more expensive, and being able to evade regulation time and time again.

Even as recently as this spring, declaring that since they are not common carriers they can discriminate allowing ISPs to charge Netflix on one side plus also charging customers on the other side.

Reclassification from "Information Service" to "Common Carrier" would be a transformative step for the net neutrality debate, dramatically forwarding the movement. But it would also come with an enormous amount of regulation and the industry really does not want that.

I hope it goes forward.

Not because I want the recording industry to shut them down, but because common carriers are exempt from the responsibility over their traffic. That is really the best solution for ISPs so they are no longer liable for the content that travels over the wire.

ISPs getting reclassified as common carriers is a major step toward net neutrality, as common carriers are not allowed to discriminate over what they carry.

China, they're making as many AP1000 reactors as the rest of the world combined.