I think that Netflix is being brilliant, actually, in their quest to be ubiquitous. They could have gone the route of "You want to stream? Buy this box." but instead chose to say "You want to stream? Okay, what've you got? game console? tivo? roku? blueray player? laptop? "

If they're everywhere, then they'll be the first thing someone thinks of when they want streaming, digital entertainment.

I've seen some people furiously shake their iPhone, on purpose. When asked what they're doing, they say that shaking makes the App do a "refresh", only it doesn't always register the command, so they have to do it again. You know what I do to make an app refresh it's content? I hit the refresh button with my finger, which has benefits including, but not limited to: not looking like a fool, not accidentally launching my phone across the room, not requiring an order of magnitude more energy to perform, and oh, did I mention not looking like a fool?

They tried that once. His name was Julius Caesar. They had to assassinate him to get him to give up the power.

This is advice worth taking. I've got a 10-year old Epson inkjet that I pray never dies, because I can get a 6 pack (3 b&w, 3 color) off EBay for less than $20.

Usually it seems like the newer the model, the less 3rd-party options there are, but if you can manage to hang onto (or find) an older model printer, the ink starts to drop in price quite substantially.

The teacher's union of Toledo, Ohio has for years had a "peer review" policy where they would meet annually to discuss & potentially dismiss teachers that have been deemed "incompetent". This isn't the school board firing teachers... it's the teacher's union itself.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91327130

This, I think, is an example of a union doing exactly what it should be doing: Protecting it's valued members and getting rid of the dead weight. With a system in place (which is largely supported by the union members) to keep a shared level of quality among members, I would think that their bargaining power when it comes to discussing benefits & pay could be largely deserved.

If more unions took it upon themselves to actively resist providing shelter to the incompetent, I think the general impression of unions wouldn't be nearly as negative.

but every year he would take leave from work and go down to the tag office and wait in line for 2-3 hours to renew his tag on the very last day you could do it. He wouldn't do it through the mail, which was an option, because that would cost money for postage AND the state charged you 1 dollar extra for renewing it by mail

And he was actually *losing* money by waiting in line to do it in person. Cost to renew by mail: ~$1.37, whereas 2 hours of his time cost (I have no idea what his rate would have been, but let's assume $50/hr) $100 in lost income. So he's not only cheap, but stupid.