I have a LG plasma TV from 2008 that still works great. It's not a smart TV so I don't have to worry about keeping it up to date or having it slow down. I've gotten more than my money's worth.
This is something I think about a lot as a product manager (PdM). There is only 1 PdM per a handful of engineers. In some cases, a product manager has more than one product (and team). From a numbers standpoint, I often wonder if I'd be better off going back to engineering. I wasn't the best at writing code—I was slow—but I enjoyed the challenges. The grass is always greener, I suppose.
Yup! My HEY address was forwarding to Gmail after I stopped my subscription. When I came back, I had to start over. All of the data is removed when you leave. HEY provides a backup when your subscription ends, so I can always take a look at that if there's something I need from that first year.
I enjoy using HEY from 37signals. It's different than other services (more opinionated), but it keeps my inbox under control. They also take privacy seriously.
I was a paid subscriber for the first year, stopped for a year, and then went back because I realized how much it helped. It lacks a calendar, though, if that's important to you.
Charging by the day or week is something that's come up a couple of times. How do you come up with the daily rate? Is it the total of what you'd charge per hour for eight hours?
A couple of years ago I was looking for a Tempur-Pedic style mattress, but didn't want to spend thousands for one. After doing a lot of research I found Isoform mattresses. They are only available through the mail and have a 90-day return window if you're not happy. It would be very expensive to ship numerous mattresses, but the trial of one with no commitment to buy is pretty good.
You can try using Xubuntu. I just switched from OS X to (Ubuntu) Linux and didn't like Unity either. A co-worker suggested Xubuntu and I haven't looked back.
I heard about Warby Parker about two weeks ago and decided to give them a try. Whenever I would get frames at a local shop it always felt rushed and I was never happy with the results in the long run. I really like the idea of the home try-on and did find a pair I'm very happy with.
I also heard that tickets will be non-transferrable this year. Last year people were scalping them on eBay and craigslist because of the free hardware that is usually given away.
The segment on Khan Academy was a good one. Khan's vision of a free world-class education seems like it has real potential at home and in school systems if they adopt it. I wish it was around when I was a kid.
I started at a medium size company, went on to a large and am now at a startup. I think it's good to try different environments. Some people prefer the stability of a large company, but it wasn't for me.
openhatch.org and launchpad.net are good sites to look for projects needing help. Take an open source application you use on a daily basis and think of ways you can contribute. Bigger projects may be difficult to dive into, but its always worth a shot.