External Hard Drive Purchase Help

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Gotta say I am not real happy as a self employed person with the cost of health insurance....for me n the wife ...me bangin on 65 and she's knocking on 60's door we are paying @$800 a month for Blue Cross PPO 80% of most stuff paid...we get to pick our noses and doctors...

Now that I get to join the Medicare brigade it appears I'll get this knocked down a bit...time will tell what " a bit " is...

Now the fact I live in Lala land doesn't help...some of the highest health insurance rates in the nation..If the gangs or a good car wreck don't get ya the pollution will..

Such is life...agree with the education thing...specially here in Cali...pretty damn good FREE public schools and having sent both of my girls through California State colleges to their Bachelors ...I still have a pot to piss in..wasn't near as expensive as I expected and fortunately we had the $ to make it without loans...They both decided they wanted to go "private" for their masters because it was faster...they did that on their own dime / student loans...and paid dearly for them...They both got good gigs straight out though so I guess it was worth it....
 
TAE said:
Gotta say I am not real happy as a self employed person with the cost of health insurance....for me n the wife ...me bangin on 65 and she's knocking on 60's door we are paying @$800 a month for Blue Cross PPO 80% of most stuff paid...we get to pick our noses and doctors...
Click to expand...

OK...so then how much were you paying before Obamacare VS after...or at least can you say how much did it go up or down when Obamacare kicked in for you?

For a lot of folks, it went up....and for some quite a bit.
Mine went up, but not a lot, but then I've been in the same employer group plan for over 20 years...and the plans are good even in retirement, as long as you never break from it. Employer picks up half, even after retirement. Once you break...you're on your own.
So I can't complain about health insurance at all....I pay about $100 bi-weekly for single.
 
Hmm? Lead. I was using 60/40 tin lead solder for a good 50yrs of my life every working day and many weekends (hobby electronics audio). For about 40 of those years we did not give a damn about soldering, drinking tea, eating a wad and SMOKING!

Until today I never thought it had done me any harm but I AM anaemic! It was not discovered until two years ago and then they did tests, cameras "up and down" (such fun!) and bloods but the doctors could not find a cause. I am on 3 tablets a day now.

I have no tendency to violence but I am for sure not as "sharp" as I was but then at nearly 73 I wouldn't expect to be.

$800 a month health insurance? ***t! If we had to pay that our quality of life would go down the pan. I certainly would not be able to run a car ('97 Proton!) and utility bills would eat up most of what was left.

How does it work? Peeps here have pet insurance and from what I hear it covers accidents and such but if pooch gets diabetes or any other chronic illness they rend to walk a way or at least bump the premiums year on year.

People get polarized about "political systems". The logical end point of "Conservatism" is anarchy, everyone is free to do as they please. My concept of "socialism" is encapsulated in "to each according to their need. From each according to their means". I do not want to limit anyone's freedoms, so long as you pay a decent wedge, have your boat in the Med and your private jet. It is the trillions sitting in tax havens while millions go hungry and homeless that incenses me. Dogs in bloody mangers!

Dave.

Dave.
 
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Well I read through the thread a few times, and it definitely was interesting. Took a few turns I didn't quite expect, all helpful information.

I settled on this one, should be here next week. Avid recommended, so I just said screw it and got it. Can always get a second one later. If anyone has any tips or tricks on how to use it correctly/effectively, I'm all ears.

Thanks a bunch for everyone's insight.

Amazon.com: OWC 2.0TB Mercury Elite Pro Desktop Storage Solution, 7200RPM eSATA/FW800/FW400/USB3.1: Computers & Accessories
 
miroslav said:
OK...so then how much were you paying before Obamacare VS after...or at least can you say how much did it go up or down when Obamacare kicked in for you?

For a lot of folks, it went up....and for some quite a bit.
Mine went up, but not a lot, but then I've been in the same employer group plan for over 20 years...and the plans are good even in retirement, as long as you never break from it. Employer picks up half, even after retirement. Once you break...you're on your own.
So I can't complain about health insurance at all....I pay about $100 bi-weekly for single.
Click to expand...

Yes it did go up with the " affordable health care act" can you say oxymoron? Howsabout moronic! In 2018 we are a lot further ahead than we were with regard to what we know about helping humans with our medical afflictions...but sadly we have a long "Row to Hoe" ;) surely if the human race is still farting out methane gas in 100 or so years they will look back at how we handled things like cancer on the level of how we look back on blood letting and using leeches...In these modern times the leeches are "Big Pharma" ..

Sad Shit..

Sister in law passed away 2 weeks ago at 55...had been feeling nauseous since April...went to an internist who did the endoscopy, colonoscopy, blood test etc...couldn't find anything...4 months of feeling sick...laid down and never woke up...55 years old WTF? Coroner is "looking into it" but sadly when we say Doctors are practicing medicine it is very true...someday they'll get it right...maybe...:cursing:
 
It seems to be very important for some people who do not live in the U.S. and likely never did......to find SOME reason to convince themselves that those of us who do live here........and have first hand knowledge of our lives and the state of our own personal happiness with this country........are somehow "wrong" and can't see the light. As if....somehow....we're not smart enough to see that we should be unhappy.

Really?

There's nothing perfect about ANY country.........but the real test is all about personal happiness. If you're happy about where you live......GREAT......if I am as well.......GREAT TOO.

I live in Florida near the beach. I'm happy as can be. Now......if you wanted to take pot shots at Florida you SURE could........but wouldn't they just be attempts to convince me I'm wrong......and where you live is better?

Who cares????

Let's get back to hard drives!!!!
 
On the socialism thing here's my Merikan perspective..

Idealistically it would be Nirvana if "we all pulled together like a team" and all shared the fruits of that labor...Unfortunately we humans are a diverse whacky group of folks with a myriad of capabilities and limitations so it is impossible for us to all be equal...Idealistically again yeah it would be really cool if everybody had Food, water, shelter and GOOD SEX...It is just not the way nature works..There will never be a woman who is the heavyweight champion of the world or the strongest human ever because they didn't get that in the dna lottery..Some of us were given amazing talents, high IQ's others a lot less...Some of us are driven to make shit happen, some of us are middle of the road workers, and some are fucking lazy motherfuckers who only give a damn about themselves and their food, water, shelter and ****. I'm cool with sharing with anyone that is pulling with me but when all you're doing is dragging me down cause you're a lazy ass quite capable of helping pull...FUG OFF! Hit the road....you ain't getting shit from me asshat.

Well we have what we call welfare here in the states and California has the highest percentage of recipients in the U.S. and watching these pieces of shit milk the system makes it clear handouts without REAL accountability are the cheese that the lazy asses of our world love to eat and will go to extreme measures to get to that cheese. To be clear there is certainly a percentage of the current people on welfare or permanent disability that really need the help and I'm glad the pittance we give them is there for them to get by on....Way too many examples I have seen on the abuser side.. I tell the story of checking out at the grocery store and this woman with her two kids and her EBT card...She's got two piles of items..The ones she can buy with her ebt card and then the other cigarettes, booze...She cheks out and I check out ..I get out to the parking lot and there is her husband picking her up in a shiny new Escalade with $5000 worth of custom rims on it....Nice...I know several "permanent disability" fakers...a drummer I know is on it and yet he is somehow able to play gigs all over Cali and ride a motorcycle...but oh hell no he can't work...

Maybe in Utopia....not here

 
Wow... over a hundred posts about hard drives. Every single one. Answered on the first page, but the rest is loose talk.

And an entertaining interlude from Euro-dweebs that know everything about America because they own a TV and a computer. More loose talk.

It's possible this question has been answered. Maybe time to lock it down?

Ponder5
 
Ponder5 said:
Wow... over a hundred posts about hard drives. Every single one. Answered on the first page, but the rest is loose talk.

And an entertaining interlude from Euro-dweebs that know everything about America because they own a TV and a computer. More loose talk.

It's possible this question has been answered. Maybe time to lock it down?

Ponder5
Click to expand...

Well I freely admit my impressions of America come from TV and film but then YOU made them!

I have to also say, I am sure TAE is a very nice chap really but his last rant just confirms a lot of what we brits believe you are like.

I take the other stance you see? I would rather a few people "play" the system if it means nobody that needs help is missed. We call them "scroungers" over here and the right wingers love to bang on about "cracking down" I often think the time, money and effort is really misplaced, at least for the minor cases.

I think women on benefits can still get done for "co-habiting" but in this more sexually enlightened world I don't think "they" would dare try!

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
Well I freely admit my impressions of America come from TV and film but then YOU made them!
Click to expand...
Someone in America may have, but it wasn't me.
Ironically, when i watch TV at all, i try to find BBC programming. Our domestic fare is crap.
BBC also has crap, BUT it has the occasional nugget which is all too scarce around here.

ecc83 said:
I have to also say, I am sure TAE is a very nice chap really but his last rant just confirms a lot of what we brits believe you are like.
Click to expand...
This is something my Euro friends have never understood, try as i might.
It doesn't matter what Brits believe.

That sounds coarse and blunt, but it isn't, believe it or not. It's difficult to put into words, because only a Free Man can understand both ends of the discussion. In the same way that, as an American, I can live by the rules and not care one whit what my neighbor thinks of it, I can hold the same attitude internationally. When others complain, it's easily dismissed because when their opinion matters, it'll matter. But not until.

Again, that sounds horrific to the village/community oriented, but to the individualist, it's just life. No insults tendered. No aspersions cast. No slander. It's just how things are. Different strokes. IMO, everyone thinking alike is no virtue.

I live in the wide open spaces unlike anything Europe has to offer. I can stand on my back porch and p:ss with one hand and shoot a pistol with the other and no one can say a thing about it. That kind of freedom, yes i know, is rare, but it's mine, at least for now. So it remains unencumbered with the taint of foreign input. I'm glad to be the Bad Guy. Suits me fine.

Funny thing, America has done nothing to the people that hate them, most especially Europe. (boy, is THAT about to be "corrected") Not saying you hate us, BTW, but the Brits' opinions are a wide spectrum. Europeans are the victims of their own governments (as are we). But rather than take on their own governments, they flick crap at America. Never understood that... until I got older and watched our own government become increasingly oppressive. Now I see where those bitter feelings come from.

P5
 
I consider myself "free"? I have never had the least concern about where I go or what I do so long as I stay within the law as all responsible people should. As for shooting guns? In my rabbit hunting days I met a couple of "toting" lamdowners. One used to keep a Mauser broom handle auto in his Landrover and have a pop at whatever he fancied on his land.

Such a handgun is Section 5 now and he should not still have it (bet he does!)

The European mind is not like the Borg! Just because a good section of the population believes "society" should take collective responsibility for each other does not mean we are not and cannot be individuals. I have already said, I have no trouble with people being very, very rich. I don't even mind them flaunting it so long as they pay ALL their taxes!

I do however have to wonder whether anyone can really get to be a $ billionare by fair means? Ok, a genius like Bill Gates but such individuals are very, very rare. One thing American DO do better than us is philanthropy. We had many generous individuals in the past but the practice seems to have died out "post Thatcher".

Thinking about it, I don't consider myself "English" or "British" or even European. I am just "me" and I happen to live here. No one was more shocked and worried than I with the Brexit result.

Dave.
 
cyrano said:
Thanks, Miroslav, for kindly illustrating my points.
Click to expand...

Nice "rebuttal"...but OK, if you say so. :p

ecc83 said:
I do however have to wonder whether anyone can really get to be a $ billionare by fair means? Ok, a genius like Bill Gates...
Click to expand...

:D

Don't kid yourself...
Bill Gates cheated, robbed and stabbed people in the back to get Microsoft going.
Steve Jobs was no better...and probably a closet sociopath.
Zuckerberg was just as bad, just as weird, maybe worse when he got Facebook going.
It's also interesting that these guys all line up on the far liberal, socialist side of things...which is easy to do when you have a lot of money. ;)

It's also funny how easily people will forgive and forget those things, and even look up to you, when you have millions/billions...and suddenly everyone also thinks you're that much smarter because you were able to cheat your way into a prosperous situation. I don't deny these guys often give millions away to good causes...but then, Al Capone was also a "charitable" fellow.


How's that song go.... "Money....money changes everything".
 
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