One feature I found rather unique at Fidelity (I too have recently migrated there as my "one stop shop") was free outgoing domestic wires ($100 minimum). Being able to "teleport" money within an hour to another pre-registered account (before 3PM ET on biz days, in my experience) facilitated switching to Fidelity while still keeping old bank/CU accounts minimally active without having to engage in a lot of thinking ahead about balances (and worrying about EFT/ACH hold times) at those now peripheral accounts.
// this may be a mistake! English language is unorthogonal in the extreme!
const char * Add_es( int count ) { return 1 == count ? "" : "es"; }
const char * Add_s( int count ) { return 1 == count ? "" : "s" ; }
(some English words pluralize with "es" suffix, most with "s"). It has proven surprisingly useful:
Msg( "%d file%s updated when you switched back", updates, Add_s( updates ) );
Only difference vs example is mine prints "0" vs "no".
My household of 4 adults independently chooses Visible (cheapest tier, $25/mon which offers unlimited data (and and unlimited hotspot, though capped at 5Mbps)). Due to the slow hotspot speeds I might migrate DW & I to US Mobile which offers high priority high speed hotspot (up to 30GB/month at about the same price when shared across 2 lines) which could be valuable when we're traveling.
A little birdie once told me that mangling the TTL on outbound packets to 65 (either on the connected machine(s), or on a separate intermediate router) may be able to get around that particular hotspot throttle.
No. The unique trackage to be used between SFBA and LA is the "Coast Line" which is owned by Union Pacific.
FTA: "Dreamstar signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Union Pacific Railroad, [...] that would allow Dreamstar to operate its trains on the tracks owned by Union Pacific."
Coast Starlight uses both BNSF and UP track. Nevertheless the point stands: neither has any intention of making the track better for passenger service. Expect frequent delays and long trip times - far longer than driving.
I still hope that CA's HSR project will eventually complete the line and give us actual high-speed service. They seem to be focusing on building the middle segment because they can get it done quicker and easier, which turns the north SF and south LA extensions into a sunk cost problem: "well we already build HSR through the central valley, it makes no sense and is super embarassing not to finish it...". All told that's probably the best strategy.
"The term Axis of Resistance [...] is a label used by pro-Iranian commentators to refer to an informal anti-Israeli and anti-Western political and military coalition led by the Iranian government. It includes the Syrian Arab Republic, Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah and various militant groups in Palestine. Pro-Ba'athist Syrian militias, some of the pro-Iran militias that are a part of the Iraqi PMF, the Houthi movement in Yemen, Cuba, Sandinista Nicaragua, Bolivia as well as Maduro's Venezuela are also considered part of the alliance."
"Despite the alliance's differing ideologies, such as secular Ba'athism, Communism, Shia Khomeinism (a type of Islamist Qutbism), Chavismo, Sandinismo, etc., they are unified by their declared objectives of opposing the activities of pro-Western parties, Israel, Arab Gulf states, Sunni Jihadists and the MEK in the region."
Reading this thread reminded me to check my Pixel 5 (primary phone, purchased new just over 3 years ago) for updates. And to my surprise, there was a Android Security Update available which, now that it has been downloaded and installed, is dated Nov 5, 2023! Maybe that'll be the last one this phone gets, but maybe not.
Anyway, I'm perfectly happy with my Pixel 5 (aside from slightly declining battery performance, it's "as good as new"); I even bought a "excellent" refurb'd Pixel 5 9 months ago to use on a second/backup line (I was also thinking to use one or both for anticipated trade-in's on Pixel 8's, but with nominal updates all in the rearview mirror, Google's trade-in value has declined to negligible, so I plan to just keep using the 5's; the cost of the 8 vs it's value add was not compelling). 8GB RAM and 128GB of local storage is plenty for my needs, and I certainly don't want a bigger phone!
> ... appealing to popularity and cult of personalities are sins I didn't imagine the programming area will suffer from, yet it happens every day. Try criticizing one of Python's many obvious pitfalls [...] and you'll be buried under a mountain of "millions are using it successfully every day, have you considered that you are the problem?". As if the amount of supporters of a thing ever had any correlation at all with quality...
Hear hear. The last 10 years of my career I was surrounded by this attitude (about Python); there was literally no possibility of putting a dent in the groupthink and cult-think surrounding Python (because after all, wasn't it "the most popular programming language in the galaxy"?), which eventually became the corporate-ly mandated language for all software development (and that was that). Yet when I retired in late 2021, my employer's minions were still developing almost entirely in Python 2, having half-heartedly put forth multiple parallel Python 3 migration initiatives which had largely come to naught.
Of course it will come to naught, they just want a stable job with no changes. I can sympathize (kids, spouse, relatives, actually having a life outside work etc.) but at the same time they are holding the entire programming area back.
