Jobs was his own worst enemy for a while on the compatibility issue.

New OS launches- all your old programs don’t work on it.

Want to use a floppy to transfer files between a Dos/Win and a Mac? Nope, not compatible. When USB drives started coming out they dropped all support for floppy drives, even in machines with them installed.

Constant driver issues with all sorts of things. Many never got resolved. To be fair the market share for Mac’s was so tiny, offering support for them didn’t make business sense.

Want to play a game? Good luck. The majority of games didn’t work on Mac. Same reason as the drivers.

As for stability issues, for a while I ran a computer lab for a college 50:50 win/Mac machines. They both crashed about equally as often.

For lesser known subjects, a literature review in a dissertation works. It at least gives you a list of papers to review.

Been on my own since I as 17. The first few years were rough to say the least.

I worked 2 jobs, 30-60 hrs per week and went to college. I shared shitty apartments with some pretty creepy people. I moved so constantly I ended up paying for a post office box so I could get my mail. I did not have a vehicle (no car) so I rode a bike for up to 60 miles per day. Even all that wasn’t enough without government grants and student loans to pay for college.

Food was something that I ate when I had it. I spent a few months with mybe 4-5 real meals. Cornflakes and ramen where the bulk of my diet for a while.

I took the first professional job I could find. It was terrible but it paid well. I gained 50lbs to be at a healthy weight the first year. The next few years I jumped around jobs until I landed in one I liked.

The last few weeks before I graduated college I met my wife. Her family has become mine over the past 25 years.

Today my income alone puts us in the top 10% of earners. My wife makes close to the same. At many crucual times in our lifes we’ve taken advantage of government assistance. To be blunt, it’s not possible to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. You need a helping hand once in a while no matter how small.

High value crop consultants - good ones can make a surprising amount of money (200k+) This isn’t your dumbfuck row crops like corn and soy. Think fruit trees, nut trees, viticulture, vegetables, organic production etc.

Many college graduates have a job offers their junior year. Anymore you’ll want to have a double major of biology/Ag.

Weed guys can’t pay me enough. 😉

I am an expert in crops. I have traveled the globe to learn about them. I have created new varieties to plant. Landowners around the globe seek me out for knowledge and seeds.

My library has booth Libby and Hoopla.

Hoopla is by far the better service. 10 books per month with a huge library to choose from. No waiting for somebody to return it in a line.

I use both mine and my wife’s library card so I am going through 20 books per month. Plus aother 5-6 on Libby.

Media companies, “We are losing money because people don’t want to pay.”

Or just maybe, your product sucks and people are finding alternatives to avoid dealing with you.

Currently pirating or streaming from a secondary site is faster, better quality, and easier to use. It’s really not that hard to figure out.

They have proven many times over that pirating/accessibility have inverse relationship.

My most frustrating example was when I needed one song for a project my wife was working on a long time ago. I looked to try to purchase it online and could only find it on iTunes. In order to purchase from iTunes you had to download the application and install it. However I had an old machine running Linux… By the time I figured this all out I had spent 2 hours trying to pay $0.99 for one song. I could not find an approved way to do it. So I went the alternative route and had the song in under 5 minutes.

They keep pushing accessibility down recently. I am not playing their games again. When they want to be reasonable they will get paid.

I have to use an iPad for work. I was also forced to use one of their phones as a while back. I have unhappily used the iOS system for about 7 years now.

A few additional things:

I have attempted to use multitasking on it. Every update changed it’s behavior and they are all unintuitive. I gave up and use my phone for the second task.

The settings menu can burn in hell. It’s an absolute hot mess that’s worse than anything else I have seen.

I use a Bluetooth keyboard at times. In order to use it I have to leave an annoying floating “accessibility” circle on the screen when it’s not connected. In order to turn it off, it’s buried somewhere in the hellish settings menu.

Apps crash about 2x more often on it than on any other system I have used. Especially after an update before the inevitable small fix comes out a few weeks later.

The updates go through an endless cycle of adding bugs then killing bugs then adding new bugs. One of my favorites bug was when I had the phone years ago. They somehow broke the search functions in contacts and took them 4 months to fix it. My company had loaded 3,000 corporate contacts Into the phone… Fun times.

Then there are all the hidden gestures that are completely illogical. I turn gestures off on my android phone for a reason.

That’s a good one to hang up in my office.

I tend to pace when my brain is working on a problem. When I do some heavy analysis, I often look at data for 20-30 minutes and then pace for 15-20 minutes as I process.

Good thing my office is empty most of the time, so I don’t bother others.

Of course after 4-5 hours my brain is done so I often find and excuse to leave the office after lunch. Gotta go walk a field/visit a customer etc…

I share a name with and average skilled hockey player who played for long time on mediocre teams. We are also the same age.

Although my name is uncommon it is not rare. So many other lawyers, insurance sales, etc who have a larger online presence mask me very effectively.

It’s enough that googling my name is a waste of time.

It also helps that I have a small footprint online with no social media accounts linked back to my real name.

My wife would pretend she doesn’t know me go the other direction.

This varies depending on the cultural norms of the country.

Japanese: I have been in high level meetings with a Japanese company. As soon as I walked into the room they all switched to English. Some of their English was weak but they still made the effort. When I commented on how much I appreciated it, surprised Pikachu faces all around. They responded course they would swap, to do otherwise is rude.

In France I have had business meetings with with 8 people around a table all of who all spoke english. 4 of them were native French speakers, 1 polish, 2 Arabic, and me the sole native English speaker. The native French speakers spoke French the entire time. They would swap to English to interrupt the English language conversation then swap back to French amongst themselve. If two or more native French speakers are together, they speak French and don’t give a fuck if they include you or not. They then act all surprised that you didn’t follow their in French conversation.

I have a older Eureka and a Dyson (broken one I fixed from my sister-in-law).

The Eureka is all around better. It’s 15 years old now and I have replaced a ton of stuff on it but the motor and suction still top notch.

It greatly depends on the age.

For under 10’s. I highly recommend the small tablets with educational games and videos. I had the homepage on the webbrowser set to PBS kids. Any other website was locked by parental controls. I also had Netflix with a kids account back when they had everything. For the games they wanted to play, I had to preview before they were installed.

The hardest age is 9-12. This is when they act all grown up but absolutely should not be online unsupervised. This is when they need room to explore what they are interested in. I open up the restrictions and allow them more of the world but routinely check to see what they are up too (an make sure they see what I am doing).

After 13, it’s all about education, not control. There is no fucking way to stop a determined teenager from accessing places they shouldn’t. The totally “locked down” school chromebooks are a great example. I am constantly impressed with the ingenuity to circumvent the controls. At this point, open discussions on all the issues online are key. They need to know about what criminals and perverts are up too. It’s no longer blocking them, it’s learning how to identify, avoid, and report them.

I also spend a few hours hanging out while they are gaming with my teenagers. It’s let’s me know what they are playing and showcase my incredible skill to their mocking.

Gardening is a great way to save money from sitting on your bank account.

The raised beds were only $200 for the wood.

I blended compost with my sandy native dirt for only another $200.

The cute fence around it was another $200 plus… Plus $100 for the new tablesaw blade because I needed it to make it.

The additional irrigation setup was only $80.

I get the fertilizer with my employee discount, only around $100 per year.

The front flower bed was only $400 to make it tiered with retaining blocks.

Then there the $300 per year for flowers etc that I just have to have.

Then there is my vegetable seed bill. That’s relatively cheap, only around $200 per year.

Since I start my plants I from seeds i need a starting setup. That’s $200 for the lights plus another $100 for the heater.

Potting soil and trays are another $75 per year.

Then there’s the steady stream of tools etc that I break or wear out and need to be replaced. Another $200-400 per year.

And then there’s the koi pond…

FYI This is the majority of the workforce. They have to work in order to do other things that are not paid. The are not interested in self improvement, climbing the social ladder, kissing ass etc. They want to do a job that doesn’t suck, get paid a fair wage, and work a fair number of hours so they can do the things they actually enjoy.

These are the people that drive human society. The most valuable portion that maintains our existence.

Never had good luck with anything netgear.

I have used Motorola’s and have never had one crap out on me. I just replaced my old 3.0 modem with the MB8611 and so far it is working flawlessly.

I just roll my eyes at it now.

FYI there is no reliable way to tell if a watermelon is ripe after it is harvested. The most reliable indicator is the tendril on the node the peduncle is attached to. When it is fully dry, the fruit is ready.