So long as I can at Wacca while unable to travel back to Japan, I am so delighted by Round1.
182 karma · joined July 17, 2015
At work, we support more than half the team on it. Company gave a stipend to build or BYOD, and a lot of folks opted for Win10 w/ WSL for gaming purposes (afaik, Wine didn't support anti-cheat in several titles until recently?)
For me, being able to confidently use any non-Apple device, have full driver support for touchscreen/wifi/speakers/etc. and maintain containerized development environments, is extremely attractive.
That EAC rider was certainly rare, but we were told tropo was still in play in South Korea, and as late as 2015, another company in my reserve ESB had a few tropo systems they were still maintaining and training on.
But yes, by and large, most microwave-based signal MOS were rolled into either point-to-point "multichannel transmissions" (25Q) by which a good part of your qualifications include deployment of satellite transportable trailers (STT), SMART/T systems (shared with the Marines),and the Phoenix system; and the dedicated SATCOM MOS (25S).
And yeah, a lot of A/C, misters, big outdoor fans, and the biggest of all, shade. Which, interestingly, is not highlighted in some of these sketches/mockups.
As a third-generation Tucsonan (one of the oldest continually inhabited places in North America), the heat is both something to be mindful of as it is something that you simply get used to.
The most glorious Monsoons are both a blessing and a curse. One of the wettest in my recent memory, but the humidity is as bad as my time in the summer at Ft. Gordon, GA; really did feel like your skin was melting off your bones...
I would also add rtings.com; they do a great job of documenting their process and the results themselves from their reviews with incredible detail.
Then around 12 I became way more social online, started making custom skins for InvisionFree message boards and spending more and more time in the CSS Zen Garden... and the rest is history!
Webcam wasn't connected from the factory. In a post-2020 world, this doesn't fly, and for a $1500+ device, I shouldn't need to spend hours doing firmware updates, driver updates, only to find it's a hardware fault.
Back to my Google Pixelbook, but the final software update date is a terrifying prospect [1], as is it's woefully inefficient Intel 7th generation processor (I've been spoiled by Ryzen for years).
Oh how I wish I could just build my own laptop with COTS components, like my desktops for the last 16 years.
Or, if I'm just not looking in the right place, I'd love to find something with a great display, lightweight, great typing experience, and something that won't hit 45*C+ on the keyboard deck after boot.
In another life, I might have bought into the Apple ecosystem, but I have been Android since 2009 and have already traded my soul to Google for it's scrambled attempts at a cohesive ecosystem.
[1] https://support.google.com/pixelbook/answer/9413900?hl=en
It was in large part a social factor. Most of my first line leaders smoked in the Army. Most of my co-workers smoked getting out.
I had tried a few times without ever getting "hooked," until one random day it was about to rain. I was inhaling deeply (desert rain has a great smell), and took my deepest drag yet.
I finally realized I had been smoking in my "mouth" it, so to speak. From there the head-clearing buzz was present, and it truly felt amazing.
Then it started to go away. Take another drag, and never quite reach that again.
Years pass and you start to wonder why you still do this stupid, nasty habit. At this point, you're already addicted and like the beautiful light switch analogy another user gave, it is a conscious effort to always quit, not to pick it up again.
I somehow only picked up smoking a year after separating, not trying to insinuate a 1:1 relationship there. Now drinking... ;)
Have used the cache-everything trick for client sites back in the day to serve a top 15 post on /r/all from a $5 Wordpress box.
Man, I'm so glad to be out of that space...
I specifically chose a return option from Japan last year because it was on a 787.
I've settled nearly ten thousand dollars of debt for far less than what I owed over the years thanks to the introduction of these programs, getting me to a point where I finally had my own credit cards instead of being an authorized user a few years earlier than I would have been able to.
It is unfortunate that I had to attribute this ability to pull myself out of dire straits to being rear-ended by a teenager texting, and getting a larger than expected settlement through a referral to an accident attorney from a close friend of mine -- and a lot of teachings from the experience of my father, who dealt with quite a 180 of his financial situation during the great recession.
I really can't put into words how much of a relief it was to stop fearing The eventual litigation of most of these debts, having my credit damage for another 7 years into the future, having what wages I was earning at the time garnished... The psychological damage that some of these outfits play too in a way is reprehensible in my opinion.
Historically, this was hard to accomplish. By 1 in a 100, I mean most frontline agents you'd speak with or have written correspondence would outright say it was impossible.
Now, many of the large companies that facilitate these services offer it as an incentive for paying your debt in full, or getting a settlement.
The lifecycle of a bad debt normally follows this pattern:
- you default with original creditor, e.g. stop making minimum payments in your credit card for 90 days
- you get placed in internal collections. Your card is shut off, and they call 3-5 times a day to get you to pay
- if you fail to make arrangements, at around 180 days, they will "charge off" your account, writing it off as unrecoverable debt. This is the second negative mark you will have, the first being your late payments
- if you continue to be in default, they will sell the debt to a third party collection agency or debt buyer. Typically these are bought at thousands of accounts at a time, for pennies on the dollar. Let's say you owe $1,200, they likely paid far less than $100 to own the rights for that debt. Because of the contract that you agreed to when opening your account, and the statute of limitations in your state, they can legally pursue the full amount even though they paid less. If you do not pay this in the first 30 days of receiving notification of the intent to collect the debt (required by law), they will add a negative trade line to your credit report, as a collection account
- for the next few years, they will call you, write you letters, occasionally offer payment plans or the ability to pay it off for less than the full amount. During this time, your credit continues to be damaged. Eventually, one of two things will happen: the statute of limitations, or the timeframe in which they can sue you to force payment, will expire. Either you are worth the contracted paralegal time or not.
Ideally by this point, you've resolved the financial situation that resulted in in the default in the first place. Contrary to common belief, paying a collection account does not improve your credit score in nearly all cases.
This is where the pay for delete comes in, you would attempt to get the debt collector to agree to remove the negative reporting from your credit report upon settlement -- or as is the case with most of the big players in the last couple years, they offer it by default, confirmed by their public FAQ pages and such.
Whether you should pay a collector or not is up to your financial situation, your understanding of your rights, and ultimately your unique situation.
Some will argue that you are morally obligated to pay the debt that you created for yourself, and agreed to by nature of a card member agreement.
Others will say that medical bills in the US are unreasonably high cost, that this industry is one of the factors in keeping the poor poor, or that once it is sold to a third party agency for pennies on the dollar, you shouldn't pay the full amount or be on the hook for it.
With any debt collector or buyer, per FDCPA, they must stop calling if you notify them. Best way to do this is by a certified letter stating your name, your phone numbers, and that it is not permitted to call you regarding this alleged debt. Offenses here can net you a bounty in court, but worth noting most folks with valid debts, can't afford to fight the onslaught of robocalls from spoofed numbers, as is all too common in the trade
Requesting validity of a debt is also covered under FDCPA, but with some general stipulations. Legally, a collector or debt buyer is required to provide validation in the 30 days after the initial notification to you if requested in writing. Most will still send documentation out of this window if they have it, but it becomes less transparent under your civil protections for them to be mandated to do so.
Obligatory IANAL, but if you find yourself in a similar position here, doing a few minutes of research on your protections and common "gotchas" of dealing with these outfits is incredibly valuable.
I noticed the trend start in 2018. Midland was one of the first to adopt it, then PRA a few months later.
For those unaware, paying a collection account was of little to not benefit for improving your credit score. The negative tradeline(s) would still be present for the typically 7 years (less, depending on type of debt and state in some cases).
Put another way, once you were in debt, there was little to no incentive beyond traditional "morals" that these folks would play to for you to pay. That, and legal action, which is still a highly effective source of revenue for these outfits.
Most that are sued either ignore legal service, aren't aware of service by publication in obscure notice ads, or don't show up for the designated day in court, awarding a default judgment to the collector. From there, they can garnish, seize, and follow your ass for years, in most cases for a debt they paid pennies on the dollar for in an excel document auction of sorts.
In the last few years, most of the debt buyers and collection agencies will delete the negative tradeline when you settle for less or pay in full the amount owed. This was a previously a "one in a hundred" chance you'd see discussed ad nauseum on debtor boards; that is, including a pay-for-delete stipulation in settlement negotiations.
If you're in debt, read up on your rights, and how to play the game with these folks. Whether you can pay it easily or not, knowledge in the processes is incredibly valuable.
This approach is mainly used by third-party debt buyers, like Encore/Midland/Cavalry. And doesn't apply to public judgments, if they decide to pursue that route. Thankfully, I have managed to avoid that in my credit recovery journey.
First-party (original creditor) will laugh or tell you it isn't possible if you ask for a PFD settlement, but there are documented instances of it happening as early as 2010 in my research for "making the case" before these policies started to become more widespread.