Not to mention that often you're charged a restocking fee by your distributor and it counts against your account purchase totals (which grant you perks such as line discounts, better rates overall, etc).

When I was running my business our main distributor would allow a 6 month restock, but with a 15% fee. We'd simply put inventory that wasn't moving that we would have returned on "clearance" at (or up to the 15% below) cost to get rid of it. It was only things that we literally thought we'd never get rid of that we'd return.

You are absolutely correct.

The difference, of course, is that you would need physical access to the keyfob in my pocket. Even if you managed that feat without me noticing, you'd destroy it in the process of extracting the information you need thus alerting me that something was amiss.

Define "people".

Individual investors were chumps from the start (pretty much every analyst had said not to buy it) and allowed the financial institutions to make a nice 20% profit in a few minutes, selling their shares @ $42 - $45 when it opened.

If you're a financial institution ... it's a long term investment that you believe will pan out. They thought $38 was the correct valuation and are in it for the long haul.

How do you think K-12 gets funded? ::Looks at property tax bill:: ::Looks around and notices a distinct lack of progeny::

I pay for for my neighbor's kids. That's how it works. Because it's *better for our country and society* that they get an education.

Exactly.

I also just bought a U3011. It's worth *every frigging penny*, because I sit in front of it at least 8 hours a day (telecommute gig). I have a 6 year old 22" 1680x1050 rotated to portrait next to it.

The average joe user? $180 = TN 16:9 1920x1080.

You'd be amazed at what good gear and being a good rider (e.g. not a squid) can do for you.

I've been riding for over 20 years. I generally put ~ 10k miles a year on my bikes (combined).

Ducati 1098.
0-60mph in 2.9 sec.
35 - 40mpg while being ham-fisted on the throttle.

My other bike is a Triumph Thruxton and it gets 50mpg.

I ride ~ 7 months out of the year here in CO.

VA has had this for over 20 years -

http://arlingtondrafthouse.com/ (celebrating 25th anniversary)

I always loved going there when I lived in the area.

Not to be pedantic (ok, I am) but one per day was never mentioned.

I watch people at work make multiples of such purchases daily ($4 coffees, $2 cinnamon buns, etc) then complain that they don't have money to buy things ... like a new(er) car.

$10/day buys you a Versa on a 6 year loan at a low interest rate with a minimal down payment.

I worked as an engineer at a company the professed to be "agile" (the quotes are because really, not so much). They started judging performance by "cards closed per week".

You'd be amazed at the number of cards that will be created and closed under those conditions. Our productivity *soared* (according the graph that showed productivity as a measurement of cards closed per week ... ).

Not so much. If you follow the links you'll find up here: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/itmrlsx/landing.aspx

Here's a sample question from the 12th grade mathematics test, specifically one marked "hard":

So in short, on top of all the other things you detail in your post which IMHO is spot on, the guy really is operating below a functional level when it comes to mathematics. Given this and those things, I'm going to go out on a limb and say he's probably not really that great at much else either.

Actually, no, it's not. At least not for the last 30 years or so.

The only taxpayer money that goes to the USPS is ~ $100mm a year to cover things mostly for the disabled and overseas voters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service). They are only expected to break even.

And therein lies the problem. The basic fact of the matter is that e-mail has eroded their bread-and-butter; people needing to communicate with another person. Bills/invoices are also going this way. While not everyone uses e-mail, enough do that this is a buggy-whip manufacturing situation. Eventually there will simply be little reason for it to exist.

The fact that they suck at delivering actual packages when compared to UPS pretty much rules them out of that business. They're slower, don't provide adequate or accurate tracking, etc, etc.

Oh, and in new neighborhoods like mine? UPS, FedEx, etc actually bring things to my *house*, not a community mailbox a 1/4 mile away.

What it comes down to is either it needs to be completely overhauled and shrunk to fit today's reality, or be subsidized heavily by taxpayer money.

No kidding. I could write an article that is the complete opposite of this based on my own personal experiences.

I'm past this "half life" and get at least 3 inquires a week via LinkedIn (either via messages or people calling my phone). I just accepted a new position (Sr. Engineer) that I'll be starting after the first of the new year. I wasn't looking for a job as my current position is quite good; this company actively sought me out and recruited me.

The same as an earlier poster stated about himself, I'm also not the smartest guy on the planet. What I am is someone who really does love this field (been programming since I was 10), has decent logic skills, keeps up with technology, etc.

I've found yEd to be quite useful as well.