njTurtle

What I mean is, if cost of living and overhead costs are MUCH cheaper in the surrounding metro area, why do big companies decide to keep operations in a high overhead environment? The talent comes from all places, in or out of the city anyway.

I'm from New Jersey, and possibly visiting the Aloha State for my honeymoon. I have done some surfing (anywhere from 2 to 9 footers, usually one or two weeks at the beach) each summer/fall for about 6 years on the Jersey Shore and in Maine. I don't really care how big, just workable. I don't mind crowds all that much, I just hear stories of local jerkoffs and really don't want to fight anybody on my honeymoon, nor do I even understand the concept of NOT sharing a wave (there's plenty to go round where i'm from). I'll probably end up on the big island and maybe some time in Oahu and Maui. Thanks in advance.

Hey. I've been surfing in New Jersey for about 5 summers and always had a good time (even on flat days). I've been reading about Hawaii, since I'm taking a trip out there next April and am reading about all of these ridiculous pecking orders and territorial assholes. Whenever I see a beginner that might be dangerous (usually a kid), I just stay out of their path and keep an eye out in case I have to save them (like their fat mom's are gonna swim out if something happens...). I usually don't care about others in the same wave as me, unless they cut across (straight riders get right of way, pipers should wait, take the next jetty, or at least be good enough to steer around). I basically adapted these rules from skiing. Islanders and west-coasters - send me your input.

The way I see it, two and three bedroom homes went from 450k+ down to averaging about 250-350k (I live in NJ/NYC area). Wouldn't more affordable housing make a lower cost of living, and therefore greater purchasing power? I just don't understand why a housing "crisis" is such a bad thing.

People keep telling me that gold will always be good. It is the universal currency. At the rate that the gold is being depleted from the US Treasury into the Federal Reserve Bank, the FED (also IMF, World Bank) should end up with almost all of the gold. Being that very few private individuals even own any precious metals, why would they even care about the "ruling" class's gold. Gold won't stop me from going hungry - food, guns, and ammo might.

I've been hearing a lot of babble about how the US's surging debt will cause the nation to fail.

Money is arbatrary, and can be revalued/recurrencied at any time. We really don't import anything we can't function without (and no, really DON'T need oil).

What am I missing here?

I have never owned an ipod. My fiance has one, and she's always trying to fix her DRM issues and on the phone with Apple, which is no help, really.

I went shopping for an mp3 player recently. The 8 gig nano was 120 BUCKS!, but the Sansa 8GB was only 50! I went for the Sansa, and it was easy. Copy, Paste, the music was there. No DRM, no synchronization, no itunes crap, and it had an FM radio for less than half the price.

Is there something I'm missing here? The ipod is NOT easier.

A colleague of mine just informed me of an internet age involving acoustic couplers. Why was this finicky way of transmission used? Nobody could come up with an analog phone wire pass-through?

I just don't get it.

http://www.old-computers.com/MUSEUM/hardware/apple...