the whole 'Obamacare rollout has been awful' is such a misreported story...making a comparison to a rollout of a similar program from the other party helps frame the issue properly

Take all the politics out of it and tell me if the project is in serious trouble. The federal website has cost ~$175 million and supports 36 states. Total signups are 27,000 during the first month. The 14 states that created their own sites have signed up 79,000. That's an awful lot of money to support less than 1000 unique transactions per day.

I suppose there is always the possibility that the opposition is running a clandestine DDOS, but the information coming out of various investigations is that they created a Rube Goldberg system and nobody wanted to hear that it wasn't going to work. I don't necessarily hold Sebelius responsible for the website's failure, I doubt she was involved other than having her underlings giving her rosy "we'll get it done" reports. But there is definitely a management problem with regards to contractor oversight.

Whether the data they have is subpenoable I don't know.

Any information that a company collects on it's customers can be subpoenaed.

I have found some very smart folks that refuse to let go and feel there is a need to do everything manually. I have also found smart folks that just want things easy to do so they can get back to doing what they want to do. Tinkerers vs non-tinkerers.

It's a matter of choosing what we want to tinker with. I have two raspberry Pis for pending projects, and itching to grab a BeagleBone. And I'm planning to build a VM host server so I can tinker with HA SQL servers. I also prefer to do all my own auto repairs and DIY jobs around the house. What I don't have interest in is tinkering with is rebuilding my tablet if this bricks it (gTab 2 doesn't appear to be supported yet anyway), and I'm on call 24x7 so I'm not very adventurous with my cell. With a full time+ job I need to be selective on how I commit my time.

The US card has neither a chip nor contactless capabilities AFAIK - it's a plain old magnetic strip. I would have serious issues actually trying to use that card back home (or in most other countries), as plenty of places simply won't take a swipe anymore.

Chips and contactless cards have been available in the US for a long time. They just aren't universal. I had an Amex Blue card nearly 15 years ago that had a chip in it. And in 2005 they launched a contactless card. Discover also had an oddly shaped card a few years ago that was contactless. I don't think the chipped cards gained acceptance because retailers didn't want to change their readers, and I don't know if Visa or Mastercard ever made any effort to get chipped cards on the market. I wouldn't be surprised if contactless cards aren't widespread simply because they are contactless. I have seen quite a few chains install the contactless readers. But if I have to choose over a reader where I swipe my own card, or a contactless reader where I have no idea what the true range is, I'm going to choose to swipe.

As far as Square's business model, you're focusing on the wrong part of the device. They are about giving small businesses the ability accept and process credit cards. They offer a mag reader because that is the most common device in the market that they are targeting. When they want to enter other markets they will simply create a new device that works through their current protocol. The card reader is a small part of their service, and I don't know why they would be limited to a single technology.

My last card was like that. I just assumed it was because they printed it on-demand at the branch office, rather than having it mailed from their credit card processor. I don't know if that's an improvement in security. It still has a mag stripe on the back, and now anyone with an ID card printer ($800 with a quick google search) and a stripe encoder ($200 on Amazon) can make cards.

I was there getting my card replaced because someone hacked Harbor Freight and stole the track 2 info from cards. (CC#, expiration, CVV) It was an odd experience because the person ahead of me was also getting a card replaced due to fraudulent charges at the exact same Home Depot in New York state. (we live in the mid-west)

A 100-year phase out of Medicare similar to the phase-out Ron Paul has proposed for Social Security.

One thing you should understand about plans to eliminate Social Security. It is NOT about saving money, or putting control of your retirement future back into your hands. It's about politicians understanding that all those IOUs they have been putting in the Social Security Trust for decades are worthless. Now that Social Security payouts are surpassing receipts, it needs those funds that were set aside for generations. But the money isn't there, leaving Congress three methods for resolving the problem; raise taxes to cover deficit spending and repaying Social Security, cut spending (biggest target is military), or dismantle Social Security and run away from the repayment responsibilities like a thief in the night.

Social Security and Medicare are paid by specified payroll taxes, not from the general fund. When Ron Paul shows you a graph of Federal spending that includes those 'entitlements'* and says "look at percentage of the budget the federal government gives away in entitlements", he is being disingenuous because taking away those agencies does not make the money available to the general fund. If Social Security and Medicare were eliminated they would also have to either eliminate the payroll taxes or pass a law to reallocate them. Oh, and you better add a room to your house, because for most people it would mean that your parents are going to be moving in once they can no longer earn a living wage.

* Entitlements is now a pejorative even though what you get paid from Social Security is dependent on what you paid in.

True capitalism only exists in theory. True capitalism would be a market without consumer protections. Capitalism operates under the belief that if a seller sells a bad product, buyers will switch to another seller, causing the first seller to either improve their product or go out of business. Do we want health and food inspectors, or do we just wait until people get sick and then let the market put the farm or restaurant out of business? While I believe stupidity should be painful, do we want cars without NHTSA and EPA regulations? The invisible hand is a fairy tale.

I just paid $3.17 last night, just 5% over your $3 target so I'd say we're getting close.

I doubt the recent drop in gasoline prices is related to our increased oil production. They have ramped up over 3 years, yet gas prices have only dropped over the last couple of weeks. I suspect gas prices are dropping due to: moving from summer fuel mixtures, drop in demand since the new school year has started, and drop in demand due to the Gov't shutdown. The number to watch right now is the price of diesel. If it starts a similar drop it will be an indicator that the economy is cooling off and we could be sliding back towards recession. With the gov't shutdown trickling into the private sector through gov't suppliers, it could be a real concern. Gasoline prices would continue to drop, and that might seem like a good thing, until employers move from furloughs to layoffs.

BTW, the market price of oil hasn't been dropping because despite the US reducing demand and producing more, worldwide demand continues to rise. China and India are huge markets and have a long way to go to reach parities with 1st world economies. Just wait until their consumers demand products and services on the same the level as US and Europe. Those 2 countries have approximately 1/3 of the world's population.

Someone says "there is even a tax on employees" with or without health insurance, and he's called a liar. I point out that FICA is indeed a tax on having employees (and on employees themselves), and I'm irrelevant or misleading?

Since we're being all pedantic, FICA isn't a tax on 'having employees'. It's a tax on 'paying W-2 employees'.

And you are both wrong on FICA. FICA is Social Security. There is a separate Medicare tax. Both are payroll taxes.

And wouldn't it have been nice if health care reform had actually focused on this, instead of all the other crap and handouts to big businesses that Obama did.

It would be nice if health care reform could have been passed on it's own merits without having to bribe politicians for their vote by incorporating handouts for their supporters. It would also be nice if supporting a good idea by an opposing party wasn't considered selling out. That isn't the congress that we have. Looked at apolitically, we'd probably have a single payer system that covered "maintenance" and emergency type treatments with private coverage for catastrophic illnesses.

Looking at the situation pragmatically, giving the public access to checkups and common disease treatment is a societal good. It keeps them active members of society and reduces preventable diseases. For emergency treatments, as a society we have already chosen to treat and stabilize anyone who shows up in an emergency room. But instead of spreading the cost across the entire population we force those that actually pay for hospital services to shoulder the burden of those who don't.

I now have a DSLR, but it doesn't work nearly as well as my old Pentax.

I had a Canon AE-1 in the 80s and use a Nikon D5100 now. My experience has been the opposite of yours. I get many more excellent photos now. Primarily because taking the pictures is essentially free. I can get about 500 shots on a 16g SD card (Jpeg and Raw), so I take a lot more. If some of them don't work out, I delete them and move on. I do a lot of wildlife photography and you don't get time to set up. If I was still shooting film I'd be spending a lot more $$ and getting far fewer photos.

I shoot with a 5100, and I'm very happy with it. But I don't think it's what 'most people' are going to be looking for. Many people are happy with the odd size photos they get from their camera phones. I haven't been through all the specs, but for a casual shooter the Nikon Coolpix L820 looks like a good alternative at $193 (Amazon).

I don't know how well the video on either of these would work for your requirements though. With the 5200 I expect light would be a problem unless you are up front. I shoot exclusively outdoors with my 5100 and it's Nikkor 55-300 (f4.5-5.6) lens, and I'm surprised how often it wants flash.

Maybe I also don't relate to video, I currently just have no interest in it. I have a 4 year old camcorder that has been used once.

Google really doesn't care if you run an mtr network stress test between Kansas City and Norway 24/7 and suck up your whole gigabit both up and down

Google would care, because there is no way for them to make any money from it. Now if you changed your stress test to do random searches through Google, then they might not care.

Cocaine is schedule II. Cannabis is schedule 1. See, you can learn something from CNN. There doesn't appear to be any real facts to support pot being a gateway drug to cocaine or heroin, but I'll bet you can find proof that it's a gateway to Twinkies.

re you kidding? That strategy has generated billions of dollars worth of free advertising for the Twinkie brand and demand is now at an all-time high; profits from now go to the new owners, losses from then are accounted for in the bankruptcy and get paid for by the creditors. It's brilliant, really, in a sociopathic sort of way.

Not to mention it gave them the opportunity to reduce product size and redefine 'fresh'.