This is so true in the military. Don't participate in the hot dog sales because you believe tax-payer money is better spent by you doing your job? Well, your eval will show that you don't have any command involvement.

Corporate world isn't terribly different.

Gov. contractors w/ a clearance can easily make six figures as mid-tier devs. Entry level is just under $100k while senior devs can make ~$150k. This is what I've personally seen at a big military base that is heavy into cyber warfare. YMMV depending on clearance level and skills. Only about 3% of the US has a clearance, or is even eligible to get one, so it's kind of an incestuous world due to more work than workers available.

Of course, the skill set for a lot of gov. contracts is a lot more specialized than general corporations, e.g. reverse engineering, embedded Linux devices, low-level programming, simulation/emulation, etc. From what I've seen, once you get into a speciality, that's basically all you'll be doing for the rest of your career as companies are hurting so much for those skills that they will continue to throw money at you to stay.

When I was retiring from the military, I had a job offer from a gov. contractor, in writing. Accepted the offer and, on the day I was supposed to start, I contacted HR to get the onboarding paperwork. HR responded, saying they didn't have it ready. Then they contacted me to say that the offer had been rescinded. No notice prior to start date, nothing.

Needless to say, I told everyone I could to avoid applying at the company.

I earned both my BS and MS degrees online while on active duty in the Navy. Earned my BS while on submarines and got the MS on shore duty.

It does come down to student discipline. I had friends who changed schools because they couldn't handle remote education and wanted in-class learning. And this was when online learning was physical books w/ emailed assignments (or snail-mail while on submarine) or, for my MS degree, reading online books or websites and submitting assignments. No Zoom-like teleconferences, no chat rooms; the students were essentially solo.

I had the opportunity a few years ago to play w/ the Magic Leap for a particular project.

The glasses were very cool and the tech was actually pretty good. It had the ability to map the area and determined distances to objects. This allowed it to "know" where occlusions would occur. With some of the games, targets would appear behind these objects, just like someone was hiding behind a wall. In addition, portals would open on the walls, floor, and ceiling. You could play Angry Birds 3D and see where the birds would land, increasing the strategy from the normal 2D game.

The image quality was good, but you had to be careful about the field of view. Depending what you were doing, you would suddenly see a split in the image as you moved out of the established "world frame".

Why even charge drivers? Just put solar panels above/next to the road and use those to power the chargers. Put small wind turbines next to the road, like in the guard rails, that are powered by the wind of the cars going past; Japan has the guard rail reflectors constantly cleaned by spinning brushes in this manner.

Regardless, there are ways to charge the cars w/o having to pay the power grid, or at least supplement grid power. Sure, doesn't address the initial installation and maintenance, but no need to screw over drivers needlessly.

Or just have a toll-road type system, where the charging lane is separate from the regular lanes and you have to pay to use it. Payments could be based on kilowatts per mile, rather than KW/hr.

I feel the same way. But I think most people who want to go back to an office don't have a home office set up.

My current and previous house dedicated a room as a home office. The previous house was going to be a consulting gig when I got out of the military, but I picked up a gov. contractor position in another state. The current house was going to be continuation of the consulting gig, but I continued as a gov. contractor and now the home office is used for book writing and similar side hustles.

Most of my coworkers are making do with bedroom offices, kitchen table offices, etc. Especially when you have small children, I can see the luxury of going to a "quiet" office that has real office furniture.

I found I work more at home because I don't have to listen to the latest sports ball talk, don't get hit w/ drive-by taskings, and only participate in necessary meetings rather than "hey, we're having a meeting that you should sit in on but will have nothing to contribute". Even if it is a mandatory meeting, I can listen w/ half an ear while still working.

I am the author mentioned in this article. The only reason my story got picked up by the media is because I first sent a news tip to Techdirt, as I know they like to discuss copyright issues.

I had sent notice to Slashdot when Google initially shutdown my ad account, but there wasn't much of a story at the time. Luckily, someone decided to cross-post the story from Techdirt to Slashdot, which may have helped Google make a decision.

So, all I can say is let as many tech sites know about your problem as you can and publicly shame Google into helping you.

Sony has the altered Midas Touch; everything they touch turns to crap. Sony doesn't have the ability to successfully do anything anymore, at least not since the '80s (and part of the 90s). I'm surprised they never tried to put a lot of stupid DRM into the game.

Couldn't agree with you more. I'm in the Navy and did a tour in Iraq. I fully expect to head back there or to Afghanistan before I get out. Not what I signed up for and not what I want to do. Except for the fact that I greatly enjoyed being in Iraq compared to going out to sea and dealing with Navy mentality, especially the Chiefs. Sad state of affairs.

Each service is jacked up and the military will have its way with you. The best you can hope for is that you get a little something back before you get out, such as a degree.

Personally, though I have 7 years to go, I'm really hoping I can get out on a medical retirement this year. I simply don't want to do it anymore and the retirement benefits aren't looking all that great anymore. I'd rather get a job as a gov. civilian, making 2-3 times as much money for less work and fewer responsibilities.

Plus, you have the option of saying, "No" with minimal, if any, repercussions. You don't realize how powerful that is until it's taken away from you.

My children are homeschooled but I won't try to address every single one of your points. I will, however, make a few comments. (Warning: long post below)

Our kids were in public school until the oldest (Ashley) was in 3rd grade. In 1st grade, she learned a "new math" that WA state decided to test out in select classrooms. When she got to 2nd grade, the state had decided to scrap the "new math" so she had to catch up to what her classmates were doing; most of them had learned the traditional methods and so she was effectively a year behind them.

Her teacher came in early and stayed late to help tutor my daughter; she was fully aware of the situation and worked her ass off to get my daughter caught up.

Being in the Navy, I got orders to Japan. We had heard that DoD school were some of the best available, because the DoD had the money to hire the best teachers.

Ashley's 3rd grade teacher was *not* the best. We told the teacher the situation with our daughter and explained what her previous teacher had been doing with her; though Ashley had made significant progress, she still struggled with arithmetic.

Simply put, the teacher was one of the "babysitters" you hear about so often. She didn't bother to try and help my daughter; the teacher just expected her to be where the rest of the class was. When Ashley couldn't figure out her homework, the teacher would make her stay after class to finish. However, the teacher didn't do any one-on-one with her; my daughter was expected to figure it out on her own.

One day, while waiting for Ashley to come outside, my wife noticed that she seemed to be missing. Nearly 10 minutes after all the other kids had came out, Ashley came out, crying. She said she had been forced to stay after class to finish her homework but she couldn't figure it out. My wife talked to the teacher who explained it was "standard practice" for any child who didn't complete the work in class; she also felt that Ashley was just slow/lazy but had a good grasp of the concepts.

Several days later, Ashley was again late. However, this time my wife went into the school and found her sitting at her desk, crying on her homework papers. The teacher was chilling at her desk, grading papers or some such thing. My wife exploded at her, then went straight to the principal to complain.

It turns out that DoD teachers can make $50k+ a year and have the same limitations to being fired that CA teachers have, if not more because they are federal workers. The teacher had other complaints against her but the school's hands were tied.

Two days later we pulled both our children out and have been homeschooling ever since. We annually spend more than $1200 on curriculum, supplemental books, science kits, etc. We have two computers just for the kids to use. Our children go with us wherever we go, so they get real-life experiences and knowledge constantly, e.g. grocery shopping teaches health and nutrition, addition, economic buying, change counting, etc.

Our kids probably go to more zoos, aquariums, museums, etc. than public school kids go on field trips. Being in the military, we have traveled across the US and are now in Japan for the second time.

Regarding socialization, I personally think it's overrated. When you're in school, who do you hang out with? A select clique of friends. The stoners don't hang with the motorheads, the geeks don't hang with the jocks, and so on. Forced integration, multi-culturalism, and all the other politically correct crap doesn't change the fact that people will naturally gravitate to people they feel most comfortable with.

Plus, there are ways to get socialization without being in school. Churches, YMCA, youth leagues, Boy/Girl Scouts, et al. are all available. Not to mention that the Internet opens up the whole world to finding social contacts.

My children can function in society just fine. But, for the most part, they are sick of the crap that public school children bring to the table.

They don't care about popularity, fashions, who's dating whom, or who is sleeping with whom. And they don't have to worry about being picked on for wearing glasses or because they are small for their ages (both of which happened), or deal with bullies, violence, teen sex, and all the other issues that are in the media.

They also aren't coddled with child pop-psychology, telling them that "everyone is a winner" and they are the most important people in the world. They have respect for others, aren't self-centered, and have discipline and self-control.

Their education may be different than what public school children receive but I believe they will be better able to face the world.