But it's not as though property taxes and ongoing maintenance costs don't exist for apartments. The income the owner receives from the rents has to cover all of that.
I think people might take your comment as flippant, but keeping zero is a very important capability that higher-end measuring devices can have. You can count on them not drifting when you open them up and take a measurement, and so you're not going to be off by a tenth of a millimeter every other measurement.
Launchers have replaced start menu search for me. They do more, they do it faster. It's frustrating that the start menu doesn't do basic stuff like open bookmarks from Edge, or do simple calculations. Having this functionality would actually enhance the functionality of Windows... but M$ doesn't seems more interested in putting ads in the start menu search.
I hang on to my old iPod shuffles and nanos with clips on them, and have paid to get them refurbed. It's just so easy to clip them onto my shirt and go. The alternative is... what, to put my gigantic phablet phone in the small pocket of my running shorts?
I shouldn't complain too much, since there actually are a fair number of modern small dedicated mp3 players that can clip on to your shirt (although none of them that I know of are quite as unobtrusive and lightweight as a 2nd gen iPod shuffle).
Beyond the expense and time, mistakes can also be very dangerous. I take a lot of pride in designing industrial machines that are not only effective at their task, but safe to build and operate. The products that I've had a hand in are touched by a lot of people, and it's my responsibility to make sure that the energies being transformed by the machine are not unleashed in ways that are harmful to people. Laziness or lack of care on my part will get people hurt.
> The biggest difference I see between software developers and mechanical engineers is a way of thinking. I realize that sounds very woo, but it's very obvious to me and to other mechanical engineers I've spoken to.
As a fellow trained ME, yes, it seems obvious to me as well. A good school and program will have you spending several years in intensive study and thought about the fundamentals and wider implications of the physical principles and mathematics of machines and systems. If you can then follow that up with a few years of good hands-on professional experience with the subject of your study, it's going to give you a level of insight into the workings of the physical world that is difficult to achieve just through direct experience.
Which is not to say that you can't succeed in manufacturing without an engineering degree. It's pretty common for experienced machinists/welders/etc. to break out of a career cul-de-sac and go into business for themselves and engage in some effective and knowledgeable engineering in the process.
But there's no shortcut. You either do the schooling, or you earn the experience. Otherwise, you're not even going to be realizing the mistakes you're making.
The huge advantage of the RPi is that I can get it up and running doing things that are useful for me just by following online guides. Whereas I ran into lots of problems when trying to do useful things with other SBCs (I'm not a "computer professional" the way most people on this site are). I don't doubt that others are more capable, but the RPi lets me just get on with my projects with minimal fuss.
It's more powerful and full-featured than usually given credit for. But there are a lot of common things that are very annoying and janky to do. Filleting is one of the first things that will be an unpleasant surprise to new users, as it's a deceptively difficult problem, and one that commerical packages put of effort into making easy for users.
Some people definitely do work 200% longer and harder than a regular employee who is conscientious about their work. Working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, and not letting off the gas, really putting your energy into it. The author works at CERN, so maybe they are that passionate and feel fulfilled by the work. Most people who do that are being exploited.
I never had A/C at home until I moved to the US Midwest a few years ago. In a hot and humid climate, you just have to design buildings and communities for the climate and adapt your lifestyle so that you're avoiding the heat. In a tropical climate, tree cover and designing for capturing the prevailing wind does most of the work. Urban heat islands are a challenge to be sure, but my apartment was fine. Once your body is used to it, you feel fine going outside and doing things without feeling like it's unbearably hot.
Living in the Midwest in a climate controlled house has definitely changed my tolerance for the heat, and I find it difficult to sleep in the heat when I travel back to my hometown.
One of the major frustrations I have with my current town is the "last tenth of a mile" that is often disconnected from any sidewalks, or is blocked off with no path through. We're a dense inner ring suburb with a decent selection of stores within 1/4 mile of tens of thousands of people. But for me to walk to the grocery store or dollar store, There are a couple of short sections of the walk where the sidewalk simply ends and I have to walk in the street. Also, a lot of commercial areas will be completely fenced off in the rear, so pedestrians in the residential area behind them have to take a long circuitous path to visit them. There sometimes seems to be no thought given to how pedestrians would access some areas.
I've started open-sourcing all the design files for the stuff I sell online, because IP protection is very weak (and frankly, I've come to think it's basically impossible). It's been a more healthy way for me to approach my products: I am a manufacturer of this product, and my competitive advantage is my own familiarity with the product and my own reputation. Whether that's fair or not is besides the point, since it's the nature of online sales these days.
I started out selling my own hobby stuff on eBay, and then switched to Etsy because I appreciated the way it presented my products as a storefront. It seemed more "legitimate". But with the way things are going, I'm ironically thinking about moving primarily back to eBay and just embracing the free-for-all there.
Etsy began as a service to a niche market, and was a good platform for small sellers. But they're a public company, and their purpose is to create more and more returns... ultimately, diluting their brand and flooding their site with slop might be a money-making proposition.
Anecdotally: I get about 49/50ths of my sales from Etsy. They have captured a lot of the virtual storefront at least for the stuff I sell (accessories I make for board games and toys). It's almost not even worth your time to list on other sites. Did they get there through the luck, or genuine business savvy? I can't say one way through another, but they're starting to really press their advantage to extract as much money from their customers/sellers as possible.
I wonder why fingerprint readers act up for some people, is there some sort of physiological reason? It works perfectly for me, but I've seen how much a tech-savvy friend of mine struggled with it (for them, faceid was a godsend).
I'm glad I bought my house while rates are very low. While sticker prices are very high right now, the price when factoring in very low interest rates on mortgages are much closer to a historical normal (although still elevated because of the lack of new construction over the last few years). I'm worried for new buyers in the coming years getting stick with these same high sticker prices, AND high interest rates.
I use it every day with my family and friends. We're not all on the same messaging platforms, but we can always reliably send MMS messages for pics on group chats.
His point about enterprise gear being a good value on the secondhand market is well taken. I've refreshed old optiplex workstations with some new components, and given them to kids and organizations who need a new computer, and they work great. Besides being cheap, they're also designed for easy maintenance.
One difference is that the VA is a complete system, with it's own hospitals and staff. Medicare is that half-way solution, a public insurance system which buys medical services for the members from the private sector.
As for the VA system's woes, I would say: yeah, it's definitely possible to build a system that doesn't work well. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be trying.