I currently work in a radio shop. Modern 2-way radios are software defined radios (SDR's), not the old crystal oscillator technology. Encryption is just another feature you can buy and install in the radio. Encrypted and un-encrypted radios are the same hardware now, so they are no harder to repair and they operate exactly the same. There is no delay when using encryption.

This would be like making an assessment of today's computing technology by using experiences from the 1990's.

Yes, there are old and insecure encryption schemes available for LMR (Land Mobile Radio), but they are not in use by competent operators.

Actually they went to video games (and then to ticket games) because that's where the money/profit was. If the pinballs made money arcades wouldn't care about having to fix them. When a pinball is $6k and it only makes $10k a year it is hard to justify the space and maintenance for it when a stupid game like Flappy bird or Fast and Furious XXV will bring in 5-10 times that. That's why arcades usually only have 1 or 2 token pinballs in the back corner, not because they are hard to fix. The difference is that those new games tend to run on consumer PC's that are obsolete by the time they hit the arcade, so in a few years when the motherboards start to fail you are left with paying the game manufacturer $500 for a $90 mobo. Unless you document every computer as they come in and buy spares while they are still available.

Also the repairs on a pinball generally don't get over a $100 worth of parts. When a video game needs a part, pretty much everything is a couple hundred bucks and up.

I worked as an arcade technician for 20 years, and at the beginning of my tenure we had over 20 pinballs that I maintained. The great thing about pinballs is that they are designed to be repaired and maintained. Some manufacturers were better than others, of course. You can still buy parts for 50 and 60 year old pinballs. They aren't complicated mechanically. And if you need the game to tell you where they problem is, you aren't a real tech. When you are working on a pinball it only takes a few minutes to check every switch manually. If it has opto's or magnetic reed switches the built in software saves you some time, but beyond that you need to be smarter than the machine if you think you are going to fix it. Once you inspect everything, clean it, repair what's needed, and tested the switches manually, then it was time to play a test game and verify everything was working properly.

I always enjoyed pinball due to the fact that it was a physical experience- there's no "oh the game cheated, I shot that guy" or anything like that. You either hit the switches/ramps/targets or you didn't.

Pinballs are great and I wish I had a few that I worked on back in the day. Older pins were generally more well designed for playability, the newer pins are mostly about the theming and getting people to play because they recognize the theme.

Yes "chemistry sets" are still available, but not with the same components and chemicals that were in them in the 50's - 70's. They've been reduced to non volatile compounds that are "safe for children". Not the same.

>(seriously go look up how much wealth Washington had, or any of the founding fathers)

Having just finished a biography of Washington, I can tell you he wasn't what we would call wealthy. He came from nothing and married up, but since his wife was a widower with children, he didn't get her wealth. His wife's children inherited their father's wealth and he had to manage it for them. His personal finances were severely crippled from the time he spent away from his assets as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, and then as President. During his time as President of the United States, he had to chase down renters and get payment because he couldn't afford to let it slide due to being in debt himself.

That being said, he put on the appearance of wealth with his home and furnishings, but he actually was not well off. He was extremely generous with the money he had and took in many relatives that had lost parents and paid for their expenses and schooling. Even after his presidency he was bombarded with visitors to his estate that he had to feed and house according to the customs of the times, which strained his finances also.

The state of Washington's finances just underscores how great a man he was. He could have become King of America after the war if he wanted, but all he wanted was to go back to his home and live in peace with his family. How many other people would have done the same? So many of the traditions surrounding the President of the US come from Washington, who realized that subsequent Presidents would be following his example. He was aware that the actions he took as President would set the tone for country and he acted accordingly. The character of George Washington is unparalleled and astonishing. We certainly don't have politicians with anywhere near his ethics today.

To minimize the risk the founding fathers took is to misunderstand that they faced certain death if they lost the revolution. They were willing to potentially sacrifice their lives, and certainly sacrifice their finances in order to throw off an oppressive, unfair government.

When my wife got the standard ultrasound to determine the sex of our second child, the local office called and told her we needed to see a specialist. They said they had never seen this before and didn't know what it was. So we went to the "specialist" in high-risk pregnancies in the Johns Hopkins network and he told us our son had a CCAM, he would likely die before being born, and do we want to schedule an abortion. He did not refer us to any other specialists or doctors, or give us any other information about the condition.

My wife took it upon herself to research what a CCAM was and what could be done about it. We found that there were 2 hospitals in the US that are considered experts in CCAM diagnosis and treatment. One in California, and one in Philadelphia - 3 hours away from us. We called and told the staff at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia what had happened. They scheduled us for an entire day of evaluations and meeting with their specialists in less than a week. When we saw the doctors at CHOP they evaluated my wife and the baby and told us he needed to be monitored by ultrasound twice a week and maybe delivered at CHOP. BUT they said, most of the cases they have turn out fine, with the baby being delivered normally and without issues. If there is a need for intervention during the pregnancy, they can do an procedure where the doctors do surgery on mom, take the baby out halfway, surgery on the baby, and then put the baby back and close mom up and let the baby continue to grow in utero. Amazing stuff.

CHOP specializes in lots of different childhood issues including cancers. The nurses told us- if you have to be here for something, a CCAM is what you want to be here for, because most of the time it turns out well. Which is a far cry from what the JH "specialist" told us. He basically said the baby was as good as dead. This was not the last time doctors gave us bad information or advice. The problem is that so many doctors speak with such conviction and authority that many people just take them at their word and don't get a second opinion or research for themselves.

Bad tests suck for sure, but the moral of the story here is to get a second opinion (or more) any time you have a major medical issue.

Our son is now 11 years old and was delivered at our local hospital with a higher APGAR score than our other 2 boys. If we had not found the CCAM at the ultrasound we would never know he had any issue at all. He has not had any interventions before or since being born.

Actually John Stossel did a bit on giving a few years ago. He found that the people that gave the most were in the least wealthy category. Their reasoning was, "There are people that have nothing, and need this more than I do."

Anyway, here's a link to his story:
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2682730&page=1

He also found that conservatives were more likely to give to charity than liberals.