!Fail, I have been using my Fire since I received it after pre-ordering. The browser is fast, navigation is intuitive, I like the apps but am not a big fan of the flip book or whatever the hell it is called. It is a cool effect but pretty useless. General tablet usage, using the imdb app while watching movies with my wife, playing games, checking mail, all of which it excels at. I do admit the button on the bottom is a poor design choice. I dont need an SD card though, almost everywhere I go has a wi-fi connection.

I will say this though, the fire kicks the crap out of the Galaxy Tab. It is not as good as the iPad by a long shot but I do like the smaller screen as I can fit the sucker in my coat pocket.

All in all it has gotten me thinking, I wouldn't need a smart phone anymore, if the fire had a 4G connection.

Yes because none of the other animals use tools and our tools have never been used to improve the earth :) I maintain it is our jobs to be stewards of the earth, and we are to use the power that we have to establish a livable planet regardless of what nature does to try to destroy itself every few millenia :)

because of the paradox. If someone truly believed that to be true then they would loathe their very own existence. As it is it usually is more of a political statement or a way to stir up social conversation as it is un-provable.

In all seriousness, as far as I am aware, outside of feeding the purple martin, I dont think the mosquito really has a useful purpose in nature other than population control.

Exactly, I will admit, 10 years ago I thought, wow those guys are charging $125 an hour, I can do that for $100 and make a killing. Then reality hit, I filed my taxes, had to hire a couple employees to help with projects, then there is the time I spend working the books, and generating business. After calculating in all that...I just couldnt make ends meet, I think I figured up one time, to pull a decent salary I needed at least 5 good employees.

Figure up that the tax is around 40%, advertizing, insurance is about 400-800 a month per employee, plus bonuses, incentives, paying the accountants...I know I was shocked too. Go into business yourself and have a few employees, you will find out soon enough that is is borderline insane.

No one over my head, I am able to pay myself almost $40 an hour. Consider I have to pay liability for each employee, and at around 40% tax I am making $10 an hour per employee. Err I should say was making. I got out because people around here were not willing to pay the rates I needed to pull a decent profit.There was always some noob contractor willing to come in for a loss.

SBS gets screwed in this market, seriously.

Only 2x? that is actually pretty good (cheap). The margins there have to be pretty tight. I am a pretty well paid IT worker at around $37 an hour (80K a year). When I contract it is for $125 an hour, $100 on the low end. The overhead on taxes and administrative costs is so friggin high that we break even on the $100/hr jobs.

What you get with contractors is freedom from salaries, benefits, leave, and liability. Depends on what you are wanting. As someone who has worked for the state, I can say the contractors we hired were worth 3-4 internal employees. The contractors have incentive, the in-house never did, they got paid the same no matter how hard they worked, just as long as they kept that seat warm between 8-5.

And no billionaires give money to a worthy Charity...not ever...

Uhhh, how exactly would private industry get into space when they were not allowed up there. I think the x-prize showed that the private industry did in a year what the private sector can do when they have incentive.

Thinking as in, reduction of expenditure vs increase in revenue. Doing an audit of what this gov't needs to run and what can be handled outside of the gov't. Internal audits are often useless as bureaucrats are experts on showing a positive bottom line no budgets dont get cut any deeper than a token smidge to show due dilligence. But it is almost impossible to argue with someone who says, your dept is useless. Sell the car, buy a smaller house, dont whine to the boss that you need a raise.

I beg to differ, my state (Nebraska) has a balanced budget, is progressive in legislation, and survived the economic meltdown with the lowest unemployment rate in the nation. We have some of the best schools, lowest crime rates, cheap housing, and our happiness level is always on the top of the nationwide charts. Given we are an agricultural state but that is shifting slowly so our dependence on the federal subsidies is getting less every year.

So hell yes, you can call us states activists a joke, but if states were allowed more self governance we will be a better, more stable economy.

The problem with Gov't is incentive. The Gov't rarely cuts programs (they do but rarely), so what is my incentive to perform? In my state (Nebraska) we are privatizing large portions of HHS. The advantage? The state still regulates and sets up the metrics for performance, but the private companies now have a contract that can be revoked when metrics are not met. There is skin in the game. With Gov't agencies, the biggest incentive is making the public think you need more money.

Not all administrative services, but the unecessary ones, like DAS, do we really need a purchasing department? Why cant agencies handle their own purchasing? There are many others. It is like your personal budget, there are a bunch of things that creep up over time, but if you really take a hard look and balance your personal budget you find that there are things you dont HAVE to have.

Ya because the world just fails unless the Gov't doesnt do everything. I bet this space initiative just goes to hell too since NASA isnt doing it....