A Roku does that nicely.

Only watching internet streaming (mostly Netflix) and OTA broadcasts. On demand streaming is the future. Got tired of paying nearly $100/month for 200 channels, of which I would only watch 10 at most. Wanna bet if they sell a la carte, each channel would cost $5-10 month plus a $25/month "maintenance" fee?

Some aspects of the novel related to science understandable for a teen: * How a submarine controls buoyancy * How the steam engines works * How electric propulsion works * How batteries work * Underwater breathing apparatus * How to make fresh water from sea water * Marine biology * Ethics of using advanced technology to harm

and a few others I look into occasionally like QEX, Circuit Cellar, and Make which I might subscribe too after the refund comes. I don't like reading articles on a computer or tablet. I code all day so when I have time to read for my hobbies, I don't want to have my head buried in another screen.

is one of the big reasons I dropped cable. If they want to attract viewership, don't rehash a popular series, rebroadcast it!

The thing is that in your examples the law is pretty unambiguous. If the company is paying for your home and car and they aren't used for work, it's considered employee income and is subject to regular income tax. Meanwhile, food given to regular employees at work, like factory worker or doctor eating at the on-site cafeteria, or the soldier in the field eating an MRE, is normally not counted as a benefit for taxing purposes. The idea behind the exception was that the employer couldn't afford to give the employee time off to leave facility to eat. The question is whether or not this rule should also apply to tech workers who have a more flexible schedule.

AFAIK, meals provided to employees onsite by a company cafeteria, while on the clock, to reduce the time the employee has to take off from work, are normally NOT treated as a taxable benefit. If the employee could come in to eat for free on their day off, those meals should be reported.

Two things... First, that SUV can't use the bike lanes or dedicated bike paths that you can. Are you paying a special bike tax to fund those projects? No we are all paying for them, often as an earmark from property or transportation taxes. Second, big rigs cause a lot more wear than SUVs. In California this is most evident on I-5 in the San Joaquin valley where the right lanes show a pronounced degradation of the concrete an asphalt. Almost anything you buy, clothes, food, your bike(!) was shipped on a truck. If you consume, you are part of the "problem"!

You forgot the sarc tag. The economy is what is killing restaurants. Fewer people have the disposable cash to eat out. If anyone does, it likely a Google employee taking his/her family out for dinner, spending the money he saved from lunch!

And many (most?) of Google's services are free to the average computer user. So who's the leech?

as well as any other "freebies" that Google provides to its onsite employees. Just think how much revenue the state could get if each Google employee's computer and office furniture were taxed at regular income tax rates!

It is hard to get a job anywhere in this economy. Real unemployment is around 15% (not the 7.6% touted by the Feds, that number excludes people unemployed so long they can't get unemployment insurance payments). For a university position, this means there is going to be less funding so fewer tenured positions. Plus the terrible economy means more Ph.D.'s are seeking refuge in universities so the candidate pool is bigger. Back in the '90s with the tech boom, I remember seeing universities advertising professorship positions to CS, Eng. and science Ph.D. fresh out of school, post-doc not required because you could make better money outside acedemia. Now you have to do years of post-docs just to get your foot in the door as an assistant professor of even lecturer. It's worse in the liberal arts.

"I find you lack of faith disturbing..."

You'll have fewer broken items if an employee has to pay for his/her carelessness. That's where the savings come from.

Everyone gets the same computer, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and choice of supported OS so IT has a limited set of hardware/OS combinations to support. You break something, you get your ass to Fry's and buy the replacement on your own dime. You want something new and cool to try? You pay for it out of your own pocket. Need something different for a new project? You get your boss to budget it and work up a PO or buy it from Fry's and expense it on petty cash. You can save buy not having vending machines and paying IT staff to supply trinkets.