So you mean a 300 gram bag of Doritos, a container of chipotle humus, two beers and a Lindt chocolate bar *isn't* what my ancestors ate?

I used to care but now I don't. I want this ship to sink. Maybe the next one we build will be better.

This too!

I worked for them about 20 years ago in customer service. My workstation was a PC running a terminal connected to an AS/400. I had to press ESC to do certain things. If I pressed ESC twice I went to the AS/400's menu where I could send broadcast messages and reset terminals.

They had to send someone from UPS in New Jersey as they refused to believe someone could access their holy system from a simple customer service terminal.

The rest of the stupidity I saw at that company fit with that experience.

So why can't *I* do the same thing with a lawyer, notary, accountant? You telling me *there* I have to use a local person? 2+2=4 in China too.

Oh that's different.

It may well be, but I need lead-based 3% silver solder for the oscilloscope, and I use 60-40 for my stuff. RoHS solder doesn't flow right and looks terrible.

It can when you don't want to reveal their gender.

I didn't say that. I said I have an oscilloscope in the kitchen.

From what? Eating my oscilloscope?

Well, another corrosive idea is that we keep being told how productive we are and how powerful our technology is, but we see very little benefit except for the top layer of society.

I just wonder how we were able to reduce our work week back in the 19th century with steam engines, but now we can't reduce the workweek again?

The socially corrosive mentality that one class of jobs, usually technical and electrical engineering, can be mercilessly outsourced needs to stop.
Lower-value service jobs like accounting, lawyers and notaries are immune to this phenomenon.
It's also good that more Chinese can earn better wages and hopefully benefit from the technology they are actually building.

Too true. I invited someone to my apartment yesterday and they said "how can you live like this?"

I told them I work in electrical engineering and that seemed enough of an answer.

I keep an oscilloscope in the kitchen.

Are you an Electric Universe supporter?

Could you read that again, please? How is there an average in there? Also, he mixed up density, temperature and energy density without blinking.

I'm not impressed.

OK here's a simple wikipedia peek for you my mouthy friend:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...

"The power production by fusion in the core varies with distance from the solar center. At the center of the Sun, theoretical models estimate it to be approximately 276.5 watts/m3,[55] a power production density that more nearly approximates reptile metabolism than a thermonuclear bomb."

An average fission reactor gives you about 1GW of electrical power and more like 3GW thermal power. To get a 1GW of power at the density of the Sun, you'd need a a building about 150 x 150 x 150 meters, just for the power production.

Since a fission reactor's core is much smaller than that, in many ways, we've already surpassed the conditions at the core of the Sun.

But anyways, maybe you can learn some lessons from this, like humility, and doing some simple peeking yourself before opening your big yap and inserting both your feet tonsil-deep.