Actually, my point was that people (not just me) are very willing to retrofit their houses for something useful. All it takes is for a real estate agent to say to a seller that the house would be more marketable if it was "robot helper ready" or some such thing. I'm thinking along the lines of a track installed under the railing on a staircase, a new type of garbage drawer, or a charging station. Obviously major structural changes like access ramps would be another matter.

Yeah, but I'll retrofit my home for something way less cool than a robot. My house was built before cable and before home computer networks, so I'm getting good at pulling cable. My house was built before insulation and before power garage door openers, but those things were added. The kitchen has been completely refurbed to accommodate automatic dishwashers, microwaves, and garbage disposals. An upstairs laundry was retrofitted when that became fashionable. If you told me there was some robot that I could purchase that kept the house clean, took the trash out, and so on... I'd probably install the necessary retrofit - especially if that meant that I could have more features for the same price.

But the story with browsers is completely different. They are not marketing Firefox OS to consumers to load on to their existing phones - they are marketing it towards phones which come pre-loaded with the OS, more akin to Macintosh on the PC side - though at the far low end. Maybe Chromebook is a better example, and that is doing nicely at the moment.

It's not ever done, but corporate charters can be revoked at the whim of government.

That is true, but refining is also very expensive and has some serious non-dollar external effects, like air pollution. Certainly all that revenue creates a few hundred high-paying jobs, and maybe that is reason enough to keep it here - but it is not without cost.

Yeah, I agree that if you are measuring total money extracted from the pension, you are doing better by living longer. However, since payments usually aren't adjusted for inflation, reality will give you a big slap in the face if you don't have a savings to supplement your pension. That half-salary that seemed good enough at 55 might not look so good in 2054. In fact, a teacher that retired today with a $50,000/year pension would probably pull in more from Social Security than from the pension by the time they hit their mid or late 80s. Inflation is not a good thing for pensioners, and it is sobering even for us 401(k) types. If I want to have "a million bucks in the bank" for retirement, I really need to target more like 4 million. That is a much harder goal!

I'd add that while it is harder to find than mainstream music, it is easier to find good music than ever in the history of mankind. YouTube alone can keep you exploring music for hours at a time.

I honestly don't know how it compares to other areas. Philly is a rich part of the country, and unions are strong here - so I fully expect that teachers would be better off than they are elsewhere. But I think you hit the nail on the head - salaries have come up. Entry level teachers still make a meager salary (though not at all bad), but stick with it and the pay is quite good. I personally think they should flatten the structure a bit - I'm of the opinion that "paying your dues" is a bit old-fashioned.

As for my "annualizing", I'm just trying to be fair. Just as your father might have trouble finding work in the summer, I would have a hard time finding an engineering job that gives me the whole summer off. My sister-in-law bartends. Until my brother ascended into "the administration", he spent the summers running the local rec department. Somehow you have to account for the fewer hours worked when comparing jobs, and I just went with the annualized route.

Last time I talked about it with my brother and his wife, they were planning on a 55 retirement. They are both teachers, and they have no kids.

The only bad part of their plan is that their pensions do not increase, so if they live 40 years that half-salary is going to look pretty paltry.

Here in PA, an entry level teacher at my district makes a fairly low salary, but the 15-year rate is fantastic. Starting elementary teachers make around $42,000. If you annualize for the 2 months off in summer that is $50,400. The 15-year rate is about $76,000 - annualized that is $91,200. I'm sorry, but that is a pretty decent salary - it puts you in the top 95% of all single wage earners. At retirement, which is IIRC 25 years, you get half pay. At that point - probably in your early 50s - you can get another job and effectively get two salaries.

Not only that, but if he's been teaching for a while, he's already "paid his dues" and is into the part where the money starts to get pretty good. At this point, wait until you are 45 (or 50), retire with full benefits, and then take on a second career if it still interests you. Until then, enjoy those summers off.

That's like $5! Outrage!

Yes, OpenBSD's main projects make things like carp, pf, etc. That seems to be the focus, and how most users use OpenBSD systems. I'm not sure how the Firefox thing is a worry to most folks who use and trust OpenBSD for their use. I've had a lot of OpenBSD machines over the years, but I don't think I've installed X Window more than a couple times.

What I can't understand is why other companies have followed their lead. Mathworks copied the ribbion for MATLAB, which makes me seriously wonder whether they are sane. MATLAB is almost by definition for power users and it costs a fortune.

I'll go a step further - I prefer Office 2003 to 2010. I've been using the "ribbon" for a few years now, and it still sucks.