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Comment Re:Why would premiums drop? (Score 1) 231

It will just transition to general liability insurance being mandatory, so your homeowner's policy goes up a bit and Renter's insurance becoming mandatory. It is just liability insurance that is mandatory, damage to your own car would still need to be covered if you haven't paid off the car, and frankly that is where companies provide value-- making it easier to get damage fixed.

Comment Does this surprise anyone!? (Score 1) 85

I still don't get why people do not assume this is the case by default. While being far from a networking guru, this is what pushed me into learning about how to configure VLANs and OpenVPN so I could put these things into appropriate jails. While I don't doubt I have made errors in configuring the firewall for outbound traffic, it is at least better than nothing, and what testing I can think to do seems to work.

Ubiquity might be able to make some money with a security appliance that automates and simplifies the process for home users...

Comment Re:Translation (Score 1) 213

Most developers haven't figured out how to make a watch app *work*. I like Zillow, Redfin, and ZonePlayer (a Sonos remote). The rest of my third party apps are a disappointment. The apps all require the developer to re-think what the app needs to do on the watch, and how to use the space effectively. If they aren't making money off of it, why bother. Advertising would be hard, and getting the word out is very tricky with the much smaller installed base.

Comment Different Issues (Score 1) 654

As someone who does not own a car, I doubt cost of public transportation is not a factor in its adoption. People don't ride public transportation for fairly specific reasons: wanting personal/dedicated space, wanting control of schedule, wanting to get from point A to point B faster, etc. The reasons why people *do* choose to ride public transportation are generally more dependent on financial limitations: parking is too expensive, don't own a car, tolls, etc.

To increase adoption of public transportation you need to make it faster and more convenient: no transfers, high frequency, easily understood route system, stops close to origins and destinations, etc. Where I live there is one commuter bus line and one "neighborhood" bus line that I use periodically. The limitations on increased use really come down to increasing frequency and making sure there are viable alternatives in off-peak times.

Comment Airplane Mode (Score 2) 129

Do you have wifi at home and work? If so, turn the phone off, put it in airplane mode, or shut off cellular data; you are doing something wrong if you think you are a light user and are consuming more than 1GB/month. I do video conferencing, web meetings, VNC, and a few other data-intensive uses, and am around 1GB/month (up from 250MB though a year or two ago).

With the iPhone you get application-specific cellular data usage, and you can limit applications' access; I assume Android does the same. For my iPhone, about half of my usage is system services and the app store (needed to replace phone while on the road, so I had to download everything over cell).

Comment Re:You tell me. (Score 1) 296

Focus on the trainwreck then. I will give one example: I get a resume from an engineer every 6-8 months from someone that I have heard stories about from one of his former co-workers as being a non-functional alcoholic. (The co-worker is what I would consider a functional alcoholic, read into it as you wish.) If this person were to put on their resume that they have been focusing on teaching yoga and spinning between professional employment then I would be forced to at least interview them.

Some specific advice: look at what part of the other things you are doing is what I consider "adult daycare." If you spend a lot of your time talking to people and trying to help them out then you really should approach looking for a job from the perspective of project management rather than engineering. If engineering is your passion, you work into it backwards.

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