Where I'm from, many items have to have an easily comparable and visible price per kg (or e.g. l). Works so well (for the consumer) when you are looking at a selection of a specific product category.
Handling all this data and keeping it up to date is much easier with digitised and synchronised displays.
I've also thought about this many times. By coincidence, my closest friends all told about similar thoughts at a gathering recently. It was interesting to hear what people wanted to do, if they wanted to change from their, now established careers.
I myself would take on metalworking and/or blacksmithing. I like the idea of working with milling, threading and cutting metals as well as welding.
I also think that it is very easy to be romantic about these things. It is probably better to understand how you could turn some of these things into hobbies and then get a bit of both worlds.
> I like the idea of working with milling, threading and cutting metals as well as welding.
I do this as a part of one of my hobbies (robotics).
It's really not that fun: It's dirty, smelly, hot, and sometimes can be dangerous. You will get cut. You will get gouged. You will bleed. You will be burned. Not always, but it will happen occasionally. Ideally, that's all the worst that will happen.
I've never worked with a metal lathe; I haven't had the need to yet. But I do have access to one. That is the one of a metal shop's tools which you need to be very respectful and mindful about being around and working with. Depending on the size of the machine (the one I have access to isn't very large), it can do everything from maim you severely, to killing you - and it won't care. It'll barely even slow down.
Not trying to scare you about metal working, but realize it isn't roses, either. It can be very satisfying to make something out of metal and know you did that. But you need to understand what the price can be - even if you are careful and wearing all the necessary safety equipment.
Oh - and never wear gloves or rings (or necklaces, ties, long hair, etc) around things like mills or lathes - really bad to do should things go wrong.
But do wear heavy boots, denim jeans (and all natural fiber clothing period), and gloves (plus other PPE like goggles, face shield, etc) when grinding, cutting, or welding - sparks and molten slag/metal are not fun when they hit bare skin (or burn thru your sneakers - ask me how I know).
Based on my small sample of friends: no, it's really not.
It used to be, but these days there's too many other options for cheap and strong materials, and places and methods to get parts made. There's definitely ways to position yourself to make good money, especially if you have connections and experience, but it's certainly not as simple as "set up a shop and make a good living".
If you can get contract jobs for aerospace, petroleum etc. then yes. For example, short order prototyping in aerospace and repairs in petroleum. Kind of like getting a programming related job, it takes some networking and reputation. Custom work for cars/motorcycles can also be good with networking and reputation. Other than that, it's basically being the cheap mechanic that can fabricate new parts instead of buying them. Which is not good in the good-vs-evil sense, but not so lucrative.
I'm in the process of trying to automate production of presentation material. Almost all slides contain a single header + chart or a single header + subheaders for multiple charts (think R ggplot charts and faceting). Data is mostly representing descriptives from surveys.
Once I have good data pre-processing and charting in R, what is the best way to easily automate much of the creation of presentations? Any experiences?
1. The first book I read that changed my view of my own mind, that is, taught me to "think about thinking", was Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder. I truly felt like my view of myself and the world I live in changed dramatically.
2. The second book that had a huge impact on me was Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky.
3. The third book has to be The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Alexander Solzhenitsyn (the abridged version by Edward E Ericson, Jr). When I mention this book, I meet a lot of people instantly debating the death toll numbers presented by Solzhenitsyn, but for me, the main point of the book is about complicity in the context of the Stalinist regime and complicity in evildoing more generally.
I think McDonalds are designed for that purpose in a way less obtrusive way - ironically enough by the decorating being loud making people not want to linger. The chairs and seats are tight and limited in manuverabilify for one in addition to the "openness". How well does it work? Well do you want to go hang out at a McDonald's?
Ironically they later tried McCafe iniative to make lingering spaces to try to compete with Starbucks after seeing how many go there for coffee - often taking the form of a nook which fails pretty badly at the task because of the previous decorating. Illustrating quite a few other negative things about the leadership.
A LOT of people hang out at McDonald’s. Older folks, kids after school, etc. In some neighborhoods they function as something like community hubs (third spaces) during their non-peak times.
I noticed similar in a MAX in Upplands Vasby (Sweden, near Stockholm). People just hanging out, but similar fast-food-style high-contrast decor.
The big difference between that and the McD's (or even the Subway down the road) was the food at MAX was far better...! (so I can see why people were hanging around and ordering more)
Great feedback. I was just about to write a comment regarding 1. above - it feels like you might have brought a bit too much of your open source roots into the presentation and too little of your business oriented foundation.
Of course this depends also on who you want to target as potential customers - who do you want to target?
My main target, at the moment, should be "small businesses", so from freelancers to startups. Not sure if I'm doing that right, but I'm willing to learn
Just to point few of them:
1. Quick deploy of the site (I mean you don't need to deal with servers, installations, and stuff)
2. They can start collecting leads easily
I was just about to ask this. “Why does the world need another web site publisher” is a general version of that question. I think you should answer both.
FYI build some alternate landing pages that are SEO’ed for “square space alternative”, etc.
This makes me scared too. When a single guy's positions can wipe out two thirds of the obligatory default fund, it seems to me that there is a mismatch between the risk allowed taken by exchanges and the amount of money they have to put towards the fund.
