That's really not all that much...average daily number of Facebook like is 4 billion+. 350 million photos uploaded a day.

Universal Basic Income - it means everybody, rich and poor alike, get a certain amount from the government (set at just above the current poverty rate) every month (and yes, it means the rich are subsidizing because it comes from taxes) - but everybody gets it, to spend as you wish - no questions asked.

So, exactly what incentive is there for someone getting paid for doing nothing, to get away from being a leech on society and trying to work or better themselves?

I believe GP was referring to SIGNAL noise on the USB line playing havoc with his RS-232 adapter. It does not mean that the laptop FAN is loud. It's also not certain that you would have issues with normal USB devices, give what a corner case RS-232 adapters are.

Indeed....it was not fan noise, nothing audible, I couldn't care less about that, but it played hell with the app I was trying to develop and integrate with an external device.

While I can certainly see Facebook fading away, the problem with the Princeton study is that an essential assumption was that since Facebook is the successor to Myspace the data regarding Myspace's rise and fall can be extrapolated to Facebook (using the resemblance of Myspace's rise and fall to certain other phenomena). The problem with this assumption is that Myspace's fall was a result of Facebook existing as its successor. Currently there is no "successor" to Facebook which fills the same niche as Facebook, Myspace, and Friendster filled.
I am not arguing that Facebook will not fall in the same way that Myspace did. I am just arguing that we do not have the data to make the case. Accurately predicting the fall of Facebook is a matter of "art", not of science and most of those doing so are expressing an opinion based on a WAG (and perhaps on what they hope will happen). Myspace and Friendster were fads. Facebook started as a fad, Myspace and Friendster faded away when they lost their novelty and were replaced by the next fad. However, Facebook has survived past the fad stage. I will repeat that just because Facebook has survived past the fad stage that does not mean that it will last.

Nah, it seems more like the stomach virus that causes me to lose my lunch.

Sails got us from Europe to the New World, but they weren't much good from New York to California. Though we didn't use fossil fuels for that either then.

I have worked with IBM thinkpads...and a year or so ago, I got a Lenovo "thinkpad" for a job, and I was highly disappointed in it.

More plastic-y and fragile than the old line thinkpads. I found the usb slots to be cheap and noisy, as that I was trying to do some USB to serial communications, and it was not pretty at times.

I'd guess the servers will likewise degenerate into cheaper states.

36.7 is normal in degrees Celsius. This kind of thing is something most people learn in their early childhood.

Something learned in childhood in countries that USE the metric system.

We don't use that at all in normal, daily life. Pretty much only used in the lab. Chemistry classes were pretty much the only place I used the metric system ever, but for regular life things like distance, temperature, etc....I can really only relate to miles and degrees F.

In the past, a band could look ugly as all get-go, but they didn't have to exist by how they looked or how they played on stage. They went to the studio, cranked out an album, and they could exist on the proceeds.

Err...the rock bands of yesteryear would tend to argue with you. They did albums sure, but their concerts were legendary:

Rolling Stones

The Who

Pink Floyd

Led Zeppelin

And none of those guys were all that much to look at really....

It's also no sense in listening to FM in the mornings since all the rock stations around here play John Boy and Billy.

Whew...sure am glad I have Walton and Johnson here to listen too. It makes the drive in pleasurable and good for some laughs.

When I have bad allergy attacks...the new stuff doesn't do shit for me.

When all else fails, Benedryl does the trick....

Except when your stuck being a contractor/temp worker which is all the rage for awhile now. You are punished (no pay) for doing the right thing and staying home.

Err, if that is a problem for you, you should NOT be contracting.

You are obviously not calculating your bill rate correctly to take into account time you want off for sick leave and/or vacation.

The reason contractor bill rates are significantly higher than W2 employees is that you consider things like:

1. Sick leave off, say 1-2 weeks annually

2. Vacation time off, say 2-3 weeks annually

3. Holidays off...look at the calendar.

If you know what you're doing, you figure your hourly billable rate so you can afford to take vacations and sick leave.

Seriously, contracting is great, but you do need to know what you're doing. Incorporate yourself, get a CPA...and learn simple principals about billing and taxes. It isn't rocket science and you can make a lot of $$ and save a lot of taxation (at least for now still), but you need to take a little responsibility and learn the ropes.

Man, I just can NOT relate to what you're saying, with using temperature in degrees C.

I know 98.6F is normal...but have no idea what is good/bad/dead in degrees C.

And, yes..too lazy to google it every time.

Weren't bitcoins worth about 10 bucks a year ago? If I had bought some then, I would have made some big profits. The question is, will they continue to go up, or will they crash and burn. If the former, one could still make big bucks.

Not a good example, since the casino coincidentally gained a $100 bill. :)

It is possible to really lose money (a $100 bill blows out of your hands into a bonfire), but even then the Fed is constantly printing more.