LordVetinari

That's comparing Amazon (Global) to Pharmaceuticals (US). Global Pharma is around 1.48 Trillion. Pharmaceutical market worldwide revenue 2001-2022 | Statista It's a closer run thing in the US though. $316b to $550b. Jeez the US spends a lot on drugs. I can see why Amazon wants a slice of that pie.

What Spotty said. Do look at the income and tax implications of running your own business and the insurances it would be wise to get. (Can you pay to replace a 3090 if you accidently brick it?) Also - Dear God Man. Punctuation.

Behold - a Man

On-site roads are more than one lane in each direction in most places (the sense of scale for the site is a bit screwey from Google maps) and designed to the same msa (millions of standard axels) as a DMRB motorway which isn’t that dissimilar to the AASHTO standard for a US interstate. The roads surrounding the plant were widened in more than a few locations and where necessary reinforced which did involve a fair bit of reconstruction.

5 years to build a Nuclear Power Plant *Laughs in Hinkley Point C* Started in 2008 for enabling works/SI 2014 - construction on new Jetty and highways improvements to local area to take increase in traffic and the abnormal loads expected. 2015/2016 - earthworks movements equivalent to 1million m3 start (35million cubic ft). 2017 - Construction on the actual building and reactor starts - expected be commissioned 2027 - cost £26b ($32b) Its not just the plant, its the infrastructure required to support the construction - hotels (Wick Moor Drove - Google Maps) have been built on site to house workers, the storage of materials is huge, haul roads on site are built like interstates. None of this is put together in 5 minutes or cheaply... (in case anyone is interested the site can be seen here: Google Maps) I'm guessing $32b goes a decent way to funding a bit of satellite

ummm.... That's not even true for semi auto which are restricted to .22lr - Section 1's will be granted on those for pest control, though the most common use is paper punching. And you most certainly can get rifles larger than .22....

Honestly- pretty much never. One of the best things I ever did was buy 4 pairs of really nice shoes that can be re-soled. Hefty outlay (a nice bonus from work helped) but now if the soles wear I just get then redone for a fraction of the price of a pair of cheap shoes. I haven’t replaced a pair in 8 years and can’t see myself needing a new pair in at least 8 more. Shoes are one thing worth spending money on. As well as being repairable they are also incredibly comfy. Also being able to rotate pairs means that leather soles last a lot longer than wearing everyday, especially in wet weather.

I think the point by asking why IT is that there is a big wide world out there with different careers and different qualifications, from Farming to Cybersecurity to construction to medical to project management to mining. Why are you so dead set on IT? Discrete medical jobs and specialisms can pay well like phlebotomy. At least in my country dental assistant/hygienist pay is pretty low, but YMMV I did civil engineering by apprenticeship- got all my school payed for and earns a wage. The downside is literally 0 free time and took a little longer than the standard qualification. But 0 debt and after qualifying you have a ton of work experience alongside the certificate. Makes you very employable. However I don’t think the US is too big on professional apprenticeships? And quality of apprenticeships can vary massively. But something to consider.

Actually to bring it back on topic - OP have you considered construction management/site management or related job? The work is steady, you generally don't need to be a registered/professionally qualified engineer, pay is decent. Good balance of indoor/outdoor work. Good job satisfaction. Good travel opportunities. You will need an aptitude towards maths/financial/legal/organisational subjects with excellent communication skills. The math is nowhere near what a professional engineer/ing degree or course will require though. I'm not in the US so my knowledge of the courses you would need and financial support is next to zilch. I'm sure someone here or at you local educational establishment will be able to help though.

No. I would be absolutely stunned if 3d printed houses are outside a test bench at the end of my career in 30 years time, let alone a normalised thing outside of bespoke one off's in very unique markets. I work for a commercial housebuilder and trust me there is a huge amount of interest (and money) behind technologies that mean we could build houses faster, cheaper and safer with less skilled workers just because of good ol' capitalism. Once you get past the press releases and crappy journalism 3d printed houses have only really achieved concrete wall construction using very specific concrete mixes, utilising expensive equipment. Unfortunately in the real world residential construction is far more that building walls and there are far quicker and cheaper options. The primary issues are: 1) scalability - on the average commercial site we will be on superstructure on 10 - 12 units at once. The cost of running 10-12 of these bad boys per site will be huge. This needs to be weighed against the fact that wall construction is a tiny tiny part of the build cost of a house. The majority of the cost is in the ground. 2) Time - yes they are 'fast', but the main advantage is in their run times rather than production speed per hour (which is ultimately limited by extruding concrete which is limited by the low slump you need to avoid formwork) as they don't get tired. Again in construction there are limits to working times so I can't have machines running 24 hours a day on a residential scheme. 3) Curing/drying and loading out. Walls need to be able to take a load/get water tight as soon as possible, not something that I have ever seen reasonably resolved with 3d printed walls. With concrete you are working 3 days/7 days/ 21 days/ 28 days for your curing and loading out - with a suitable formwork I can seal the house at 3 days with a roof. 3d printing requires longer waits. Timber construction really has an advantage here as once its up and braced you are good to go. Also concrete needs to be moist to cure, this means a ton of moisture in a house that needs to come out before dry lining/boarding or you are just baking in a mould problem. 4) Reinforcement - you are limited to glass or metal fibre reinforcement. This limits the height you can achieve at sensible cost (and is also expensive compared to traditional bar anyway). It also generally means I need a thicker wall (and more concrete) than either traditional Reinforced Concrete or ICF (see below) 5) Health and safety - a failure of a 3d printed wall would be pretty catastrophic and sudden with no warning like you would get with formwork failure. Not to mention damage to other walls and potentially the very expensive machine. 6) Reliability - one of those machines goes pop or there is a print failure and that plot is doneski until an engineer can come out and resolve the issue. Or I spend a fortune and have an engineer sitting around per site. 7) Repair and replacement - Solid walls have a lot of advantages however this isn't one of them. If a wall has significant voids/bubbles in the concrete (which may not be picked up by inspection) and a section need to be replaced then this is a significant (costly/time consuming) issue. Plus a whole host of others around regulations and building codes, however as that varies depending on where you are that's a huge subject to get into. The real alternative to 3d printing is ICF or insulating concrete formwork - all the benefits of 3d printing but faster, pre insulated, and pretty much none of the drawbacks. Plus is a well tried and tested method in Europe and importantly can get water tight much faster so we can get on with internal trades. Modular timber also look good (but you still need to get from tree to frame) but uses can be hampered by site conditions. 3d printed houses are achievable sure, but as a commercial inevitability astoundingly unlikely to happen as there are better options out there. Any way this is very very OT .

This actually has a name: nominative determinism

A good video - mechanical computation has always fascinated me. A video looking at the Turing Bombe would be brilliant.

Given the use of the £ sign I am guessing you are UK : Check the Honeywell EvoHome - although do make sure it is compatible with your boiler as you may need an ABV. The base unit and a about 4 TRV's will set you back around £400. A full wifi/control pack with TRV's is around £800. Its worth considering the location of your TRV's as the Honeywell ones are thicc ol' boys. We use these extensively on new build houses - never any complaints, although the base unit is a bit..... early 2000's. Likewise Hive will do a similar thing but I'm unsure on prices, they aren't far different as far as I'm aware. Vailant do a similar vSmart sytem, although I don't know much about that one.

Aged 15 walking home from secondary school (UK so time difference etc..) - I remember a really odd atmosphere in the town centre and a huge crowd around the window of Dixons (electronics shop, remember those?) watching it on the TV's in the window, lots of people kinda thought it was a movie and I remember the dawning realisation on the crowd that this was actually real.... Hung around to watch for a bit then got a cheeky quarter pounder from the McDonalds just down the street.

Early GTX card. The 650 is an excellent shout. I think anything above that had 2 fans or more.