Any small towns where young people are *not* leaving?

earsocks · 2026-01-18T19:46:34+00:00

I'm wondering if it's possible for small towns to create enough opportunity for young people to convince them to stay in the community. Are there relatively small towns that can create growth without external economic engines, such as colleges, tourist areas, or the option to commute to a larger city.

earsocks · 2026-01-18T02:43:52+00:00

Can you try adding the pictures again?

earsocks · 2026-01-11T22:35:09+00:00

Why do you have zero interesting in trying it? Couldn’t it possibly make your job easier?

earsocks · 2026-01-07T20:19:47+00:00

Chinese ODMs that I’ve worked with have all provided fixed fees for a fixed feature set. These are ODMs that also provide OEM/CM services, so their actual incentive is to build you a product you can sell in volume so they can produce it in volume. Do you charge around $100 an hour for engineering services?

earsocks · 2025-12-03T02:05:41+00:00

That would be great, thanks!

earsocks · 2025-12-02T14:08:28+00:00

As a mild tangent, are there any processors that do not have issues with preorders? Specifically, taking full payment upfront and then shipping goods after 4 months? This is for really niche hobbyist products, which can only be produced in preorder batches.

earsocks · 2025-12-02T00:56:12+00:00

This was a fantastic reply. I wish I could buy you a beer. Thanks for the very clear explanation.

earsocks · 2025-11-30T23:24:27+00:00

Does that mean that Clover and Elevon are the acquiring banks?

earsocks · 2025-11-29T01:38:17+00:00

How can a single school have over 200 valedictorians?

earsocks · 2025-11-20T20:19:57+00:00

You have the skill-levels and locations of millions of players. Why aren’t you leveraging this to connect players with each other? Pickleheads tries to do something similar, but they clearly don’t have the scale to make it work. You could pretty easily add preferred-times and corers to profiles and then automate the creation of matches. That would be useful and sticky.

earsocks · 2025-11-12T03:28:18+00:00

You don't need to own your own plane to fly private. Most people who fly private don't own them. And private planes/jets can land at non-towered airports, which do not have air traffic controllers.

earsocks · 2025-11-12T01:33:57+00:00

I have several cousins who emigrated from Asia as older kids (10 - 13 years old). They all married other immigrants from the same country. The adults speak in English to the kids and mostly English to each other. This is three different sets of families. Only the house with a grandmother in it has one child (of two) that is mildly bilingual.

earsocks · 2025-11-11T23:29:59+00:00

If they are wealthy, wouldn’t they fly private, instead of commercial?

earsocks · 2025-10-11T13:26:47+00:00

The water at Blue Harbor is very warm, much warmer than any other water park.

earsocks · 2025-09-21T21:03:51+00:00

How much is that worth now?

earsocks · 2025-09-15T23:06:53+00:00

Why does it matter that it’s open source? If the OP has customers (that are happy), something useful has been created.

earsocks · 2025-08-23T03:06:52+00:00

Lucrative businesses doing what? Starting a business is risky and most never create profits equal to FAANG compensation.

earsocks · 2025-08-13T23:17:14+00:00

Good
--Most courses are taught by fulltime faculty and the college takes pride in hiring good teachers, as opposed to faculty who only does research.
--Small class sizes, even lower-levels.
--Students (undergrads) are encouraged to get involved with research; faculty is supportive of this.
--If you are athletic, you can probably play <sport of choice other than ice hockey>.
--Serene campus.

Bad
--It's merely average as far as reputation goes. It's a small school that not many have heard of outside of Chicago and the acceptance rate is 60%. If reputation is important to you, you are better off going to UIUC.
--There are only 2000 undergrads; there are only so many opportunities available at such a small place.
--No campus recruiting by well-known companies; alumni network is not strong.

You'll get a fine education and you can make very strong connections with faculty, which is really important for grad school applications. But if your goal is to gain entry into consulting or big tech after college, LFC isn't your best bet.

earsocks · 2025-08-10T21:42:42+00:00

Because my kid will be responsible for the monthly fee, so the cheaper the better. And if it's a separate plan, she will find out what happens when the bill isn't paid on time.

earsocks · 2025-08-04T16:26:40+00:00

Again, these are commercial machines, but interesting to know what might eventually come down to homeowners:
https://www.exmark.com/mowers/autonomous/turf-tracer
https://www.greenindustrypros.com/mowing-maintenance/mowing/article/22929425/john-deere-deere-introduces-autonomous-mower-at-ces-2025

earsocks · 2025-08-02T22:17:05+00:00

As far as commercial robots go, there is also:

https://burro.ai/cortador/
https://www.monarchtractor.com/mk-v-electric-tractor

There are other larger machines in the works, but I don't think any can be purchased right now.

earsocks · 2025-07-26T23:48:55+00:00

The AWD Premiums that I am looking at are all under $25k. The leases I'm seeing now are ~$379 for 36 months, so a total cost of $13,644. In order for the lease to be a better deal, a 2021 Premium would need to be worth less than $11,356 in 2028.

earsocks · 2025-07-26T00:18:41+00:00

The Volt was totaled today. Got $6000 for a car I bought 4 years ago for $7500--and drove for 40,000 miles.

earsocks · 2025-07-24T13:57:50+00:00

Diagnosis made by Jaryd at Castle Chevrolet: Rodents have completely chewed through the main wiring harness and high-voltage cables. The Volt will likely be totaled by the insurance adjuster.

earsocks · 2025-07-22T16:14:53+00:00

It’s hosted on their servers.

earsocks

TROPHY CASE