So all of this may be a precursor to mars/moon habitat building & transport infrastructure maybe? I wonder if the dimensions of the borer would fit in the BFR? Flamethrower is to fry aliens of course...

So why not use a local app and cloud storage service? I use Keepass and NextCloud but could easily use GoogleDrive or DropBox or somesuch. The encrypted file doesn't take up that much space and you can sync it to whatever device you want.

So when citizenship is granted then the company can move on to a more profitable employee from overseas and then we have 2 issues - more un/under-employed citizens AND more outsourcing. yayy...

I'm kidding hopefully - hard to tell these days.

While VR is very cool I just have a hard time seeing how it will appeal to the general public. Special niche markets (gaming,medical, military, architectural) maybe but not for everyone. AR/Mixed Reality on the other hand seems to be where it's at if they can get the "field of view" issues worked out. I can see so much more potential with AR - especially networked AR but I may lack the imagination necessary to truly appreciate VR's mass appeal.

Started with Gentoo - awesome learning experience. Harder to maintain in a production environment especially if you're lazy like me.

On the desktop went thru various distros - Ubuntu, SolydXK, Mint, Manjaro/Arch and am now using Korora/Fedora. Have been very surprised at how well Korora works - always avoided Fedora for whatever reason.

Tried Elementary OS a few years ago and liked the look but the packages just weren't there and some things were broken. No doubt things are better but I've moved on.

LXLE looks cool especially for older tech - I like the LXDE and LXQT DEs a lot - simple and old school windows-like.

CentOS seems a little outdated for my tastes but it works well enough especially in environments that are fragile. Using Ubuntu LTS for most of my server stuff - for me it has been the easiest to maintain and keep current with a great range of compatible devices and packages.

Haven't tried Parrot Linux yet but will check it out - have used Kali & BackBox.

According to their site they are a US company with a NZ subsidiary.

https://rocketlabusa.com/about...

So would likely need US approval.. just sayin..

As a kid felt alone and isolated - not into sports, family issues (divorce/remarry). Computers were an escape, a way to feel "special" and a way of exerting control.

Dad was into computers through his work, brought home Vic 20 then C64, learned some programming by typing in code. Later assembly to do cool stuff like switch out character sets etc. Had a small job programming menus for touch screens on an Apple ][.

High School had computers TRS-80s but teacher did not know how to use them which gave us free reign to do what we wanted. Learned some assembly there as well (Block Moves ROCK!).

Very good community college professor who was "in the industry" and taught (for the time) formal computer coding and design methodologies. I learned fortan & pascal there.

Picked up more bits of programming (particularly database apps) while working on side projects for various jobs and friends - Lotus symphony! Clipper Summer 87!. First real programming job learned the hard way about business app development - just get it done!! No time no spec no testing! You are a good programmer but not our kind of programmer! You're fired!

Finally started working at a proper but very small computer firm had a great older mentor who taught me about integrating what I learned in college with the "real world" stuff. The job forced me to work with clients directly, larger scale projects and learn more about "cost" and the "business way" of doing things.

As others have said - having a personal interest in these things helps keep driving you forward with learning and adapting to new stuff. It's not a job it's a hobby/lifestyle etc. Never stop learning!

arghh sorry "Novell 3.11"

Local Governments with no budgets have to make their custom software last for an insane amount of time before they can get a replacement. I know of one still running Dos & a Novell 3.1 server. Web apps seem a good way to keep things standard across a variety of aging and ancient computer systems. I do not necessarily mean that NodeJS is the answer here just that using the web (internally) seems to be a longer lasting solution then a platform dependant one (say windows app). With Node at least the govt IT people who may know javascript have a chance of parsing the backend server stuff to make changes etc long after the developer is gone. Of course the same could be said for PHP etc..

Another big issue is responsiveness of rules/triggering/devices.

I have a smartthings hub and sometimes simple motion triggers or routines fail and usually it's due to some sort of network issue. If I lose internet connectivity then a lot of my smart things become dumb things. To be fair things seem to be improving albeit slowly but I am still tied to Samsung and whatever they want to do with their services - it looks like they are more focused on TVs and Refrigerator hubs at the moment. I have no confidence that they or any provider will keep things going through the lifetime of a particular product - Revolv anyone? At least the IOT devices themselves are relatively transferrable.

Have been looking at CastleOS as a possible alternative. Not sure where they stand with Zigbee integration - my devices are a mixture of Z-wave/Wifi/Zigbee

Also they are windows ?10? based so there is the whole potential spying thing there too but at least the operation is not cloud reliant.

E.

.. Bingo?

So I think the current knock on margarine is the potential for more trans-fats. Also some people have issues with the way it's processed using hexane or some such - I dunno I tend to tune out the whole holistic/naturalistic/organic fud anyway. Also not sure if it's really the same as butter after my brief and lazy googling - there's that whole hydrogenation thing. I grew up with margarine but made the switch to butter a while ago. I think I like the taste of butter better (esp in cooking) but could probably get used to marg again. I also heard that lard is making a comeback too... wonder if they could grow that in a vat.

I dunno - Windows 8.xx doesn't support some of my working older devices all that well - which is understandable as manufacturers can't or won't opensource their code and/or do not want to rewrite drivers for products they are no longer selling. I am running both Windows 8.1 & Manjaro (Arch) Linux and am fairly satisfied with both. I agree that newer stuff always seems to be an issue in Linux at least initially but things usually sort themselves out over time - usually it seems to take longer when there are large changes in pc tech - like displays etc. Overall I think there is actually a greater amount of compatible device drivers for the latest Linux versus the latest Windows.. but ymmv.

If you upgrade to Win8.xx (or even Win7) you might lose support for your older devices like printers, webcams etc. This means having to fork over even MORE $$$. In my experience this is usually a user's next shock after using the interface.

I was under the impression that at least early on Microsoft kinda sorta turned a blind eye to pirating - that way they could spread their stuff far and wide. Only after everyone was "hooked" did they start tightening the screws.

I remember how easy it was to install ms office (and other sw) throughout a business with a single set of installation CDs/diskettes + add extra bogus seats/connections/licenses to your server etc.

Just sayin'