The power company already knows how much I use and when. In fact they send me this energy statement saying I'm using 10% more than my neighbors.

If you had a scanner and printer combined and could just hit a "replicate" button, you'd be on to something.

if you had a way to take the scan data and use that, then you'e really have something. Because then I can make cases for things by putting the thing in and doing a simple subtraction fro an extrusion and I'd get a mating surface. It would provide a pragmatic way to obtain dimensions, rather than busting out rulers and using trial and error.

I used to contribute significantly to my 401k, but what I have learned is that there is no sure thing. One more economic crisis at my retirement age and I am fucked. These days I put more into side entrepreneurial efforts hoping something will pan out. It's higher risk but total reward. You end up running a profitable company and everything clicks then you don't need alt hat retirement. So it comes down to: do you invest in yourself, or in a company managed by some guy who is looking to manipulate the stock price for his gain. Given the shakiness of the economy, it's not a bad idea to have your own business in the wings.

Also, since I am paying on a mortgage, when that is paid off in 17 years, I'll have a crap ton of equity and no mortgage payment. And since money doubles around every 17 years, My mortgage payment gets easier to pay year by year, financial crises excepted.

The stop was based on "anonymous", the odor only was encountered because of the stop, in which the window came down. Neither the odor nor the drugs were perceivable before that. If the police just happened across the vehicle, they would need a suspicion of their own.

I'm all for the guy getting stopped because of his operating a vehicle unsafely.
I'm all for the guy getting busted for pot.
I'm not ok with his accuser being considered "anonymous".

With checkpoints, they have to provide notice, and an alternate route around the checkpoint (which is usually staffed, but that's another issue).

At the check point, you don't have to answer any questions. You just have to stop. IANAL, but you can watch this.

Also, obligatory, Never talk to the police

This is a boon to "parallel construction"

I for one don't think that the accuser should ever be anonymous when it comes to court cases, since we would have a right to face them in a court of law. I think for reporting the guy down the street who keeps violating noise or lawn ordinances is a different story. As those never really go to court.

Well, how much of your phone should be packaging? If you wrap your components in a case (which you have to do) then have a case around the baseboard and those components, you now have two layers of casing, and you're going to be generating millimeters of additional size all around. If you want a drop-survivable shell, you add more millimeters on top of that. Remember, it's still has to fit in your pocket.

The Nexus 5 and iPhone are only so small because it's all permanently fixed together, needing only one casing.

It falls into a dozen parts that I can't recover in the dark. Made harder by the fact that the LED light bounced somewhere and is now under someone's foot.
Right now, I just have 3 parts: phone, battery and back cover to worry about.

He's got one. It's called bitcoin. How'st hat coming along?

Oddly, I seem to exemplify this. I was on track up until the financial crisis then chaos ensued. But if we look at where I was in 2004 making ~$80k, then went higher, then back down at the crisis, and comparing my standard of living to now, it's completely the same. I have the same small house, paid-off car (but not the same paid off car) and the same or worse lifestyle. The only real difference is the economy is shakier and anyone can lose their job at any time. I know, it happened to me twice last year, despite stellar reviews. I spend way less money at the bar and I hardly eat out. The only positive is I am 10 years more into a mortgage. But I did get a dog.

Treading water, I'm doing it right.

This is all despite a very energetic attitude, high work ethic, and high work drive. I'm trying to get ahead. Even my dog has a higher work ethic than most people. But I'm still delightfully average. And even less secure than ever.

How much of this "habitable zone" factors in water's ability to be liquid to to pressure? Too thin it vaporizes (Mars). Too much, it vaporizes (Venus). Merely being the right temperature isn't enough.

Also, having a magnetic pole strong enough to shield it from the solar wind, so what does wind up in the atmosphere doesn't wind up in space.

Not having a "real" platform, I used the web version of TaxACT. It was half the price of TaxCut to TurboTax. Being a web app, it was alright but the interface was buggy, and the questions were awfully worded.

I've been running Mint 115/16 for about 6 months, and other than tax filing it has been fantastic.

Reminder: before switching someone to Linux ask about how they do their taxes first.

Well before you brand me "denier" let me say I am very much pro-environment. I think we should have negligible impact on the biosphere because who knows how long we will need this one.

Now, there is no such thing as "climate science", but there is "climate" and "science" and even "science applied to climate" however none of these are climate science. We know CO2 is a greenhouse gas and warms faster than our nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere. And adding CO2 to that atmosphere will make it hotter. We've predicted that, and we can show in a lab experiment that is true. However that's where the science really ends. We have other ways that science is applied to climate, as in the study of ice cores and weather. But add these all up and you still can't call it "climate science" because we cannot (yet) account for everything going on. We cannot make a prediction and test it. First be have a sample set of one. It won't necessarily generalize. Second, the one we have is ours, and far too important to try any large scale experiment on. Third, its too big to try any sufficiently large experiment on.

So all we have is the ability to do is predict, wait, and measure. When we do that, we get wrong answers. Despite this "99% confidence" every single global warming alarmist has been wrong for the past 18 years. The increase between actual and prediction continues to grow. To me this is the single most important deciding factor. And I don't think it is to much to ask - that theory (models) match the actual. Over the last 17 years 8 months, not even the sign is the same. Actual is down a trivial amount (hundredths of a degree), but the models are saying 0.3 degree increase, with increased divergence expected. The fact that we can't predict a 20 year pause (even drop) is a big fucking deal. The humans have declared "the science settled" but despite that nature continues to do what it wants. So if you have all these "experts" saying "the science is settled" and nature is going the other way, who do you believe? Especially when they have these "99%" confidence intervals.

The truth of the matter is, only the science in the laboratory is settled. The science of what actually in the atmosphere is far from complete. I wouldn't be so "anti climate science" if these guys had a bit more modestly and a lot less hubris. But here's what they are doing. Their model predictions get more invalidated by the day, and how do they respond? "We have a 99% condience"... they double down on science that isn't working. They are in effect, becoming oracles or prophets of doom. A proper scientific response would be to retreat, revise the models until they have something that works, then apologize and start using the improved model. But that's not what these guys do. They spend way too much time making dire predictions (which don't validate) in the media.

I love science through and through, but I would be ashamed to call myself a climate scientist.

I was having this discussion about my boss's Chromebox. Which I was laughing at for being a thin client. "it'll revolutionize the world"" he said. "We've had citrix for years." I said. All this dies is give you a thin client where the server is any internet accessible site.

Any why not everyone just get a Occulus, a webcam and superimpose the 3D model on the webcam image being fed into the occulus?