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| 5/16 |
| 2012/8/5-10/17 [Finance/Shopping] UID:54454 Activity:nil |
8/5 VPS is a LOT cheaper than EC2 by at least 5X and sometimes
10X. Why is EC2 so popular when the price is not even
competitive?
http://secure.johncompanies.com/signup/step1.html?svc=linux
http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing
\_ One month of standard with 600GB of bandwidth is $39/mo
for VPS. For a year that would be $428. That is about
the same price as an EC2 medium instance for a year.
Where do you get the 5X from?
\_ VPS is not terribly elastic, and hasn't got a rich API w/
programmable network and storage services? |
| 2010/1/25-30 [Recreation/Food, Finance/Shopping] UID:53663 Activity:high |
1/25 I went to Ranch 99 for the first time recently. Lots of interesting
items, but the place got a "yuck" for its cleanliness factor and
so I left without buying anything. I went to a Japanese market and
it was antiseptic in comparison and the fish/meats looked much
fresher, too. Did I happen to choose a bad location or is this
chain going to sell me food that makes me sick? I was not impressed.
\_ I go McD fol first time. Lots of intelesting food, but the
prace got a "yuuck" for rack of selections and so I left
without buying anything. I go France Market and
it was prettier in comparison and the food was so much
flesher, too. Did I happen to choose a bad Amelican fast
food or are all Amelican fast food sell shit that make
me puke porridge? I was not implessed. I don't go out
much, enrighten me prease. -foreign man
\_ "foleign"
\_ I dunno what fucked up place you come from but most
places have at least the R* or L* phoneme in place.
if you're going to affect a fake accent at least try
to get it right, we live in a post-house-laurie world now.
\_ china vs japan.
\_ 99 Ranch is a Taiwanese market, not Mainland Chinese. (Whether
Taiwan is/isn't part of China is a separate debate.)
\_ "The House is on FIRE!"
"no no this isn't a house it's an apartment, and thus
your argument is refuted."
\_ Are you trolling or genuinely this stupid? If you don't know
if you're either one, god help.
\_ I detect ignorance... lack of exposure to the world.
The guy is obviously a dumb ass, give him a break
\_ Enlighten me with your wisdom.
\_ Contrary to what you've been told in UPN or whatever,
asian cultures are not the same, and furthermore, stores for
poorer people are generally filthier than stores for rich
people. Ranch 99 caters to *students* who are traditionally
poor/cheap. And Mainland chinese hygiene is pretty bad.
Just ask what the "red spittle juice" street paintings are.
\_ Plus Taiwanese culture and Mainland Chinese culture are
different.
\_ Dude, I have no idea who Ranch 99 purports to cater to,
but I can tell you that most of the customers were not
students judging by their ages. So if Ranch 99 is for
'poor people' then what is the 'rich people' equivalent?
\_ which Ranch 99? In my experience, Albany was really clean,
San Mateo/not so clean, Cupertino, SPARKLING
\_ Yeah, poor people get dirty stores, rich people get nice clean
stores. This is true everywhere.
\_ Give me an example of a clean Chinatown.
\_ Cupertino.
\_ Palos Verdes Estates
\_ Not PVE. You mean RPV.
\_ Manchukuo
\_ Monterey Park, San Marino, Arcadia, South Pasadena
\_ I actually went to the Arcadia "Ranch 99". Since I
went there have been 3 muggings in the parking lot.
What a dump.
\_ Yokohama |
| 5/16 |
| 2009/11/1-9 [Finance/Shopping, Health/Women] UID:53489 Activity:nil |
11/1 http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/11/01/0027242/Evolutions-Path-May-Lead-To-Shorter-Heavier-Women?from=rss Shorter, heavier women bear more children, at earlier age than taller, skinner women who bear fewer. Women in the future will be 2cm shorter and 1kg heavier. Well, DUH! White American women aren't reproducing as fast as colored immigrants that mass produce children. |
| 2009/7/31-8/11 [Computer/Companies/Apple, Finance/Shopping] UID:53226 Activity:high |
8/1 PCs are cheaper and offer more bang for bucks. So why do I still prefer
Apple? To signal reproductive suitability. The same reasons why
people buy stupid fancy cars and stupid name brand clothes.
\_ You and the women you're trying to get are iDiots of the Cult of
Steve. iPhones/iMacs don't last as long as Roles nor do they
Steve. iPhones/iMacs don't last as long as Rolexes nor do they
appreciate like Bentleys. Yet they are symbols of wealth?
Have you tried on a tailored armani? it feels GREAT. Unlike my
experience with Spotlight w/ ext raids or TimeCapsule.
people buy stupid fancy cars and stupid name brand clothes.
\_ I'm pretty sure the richest man in the world uses a PC not an Apple.
\- That is what is called a "signalling good". There are "weak"
singalling goods, and a Apple computer is at best a weak singalling
good, but is mostly "useful". A rolex watch is a little bit more
of a signalling good ... it's slightly higher quality in terms of
accuracy, it to some extent self-advertises [the rolex crown], but
is not super obvious about it [medium "bling" factor], but you
certainly get an acceptable time telling watch for much cheaper.
One reason people were excited about the "I am rich" app on the
iPhone is it was a rare "pure" signalling good ... it literally
had no other use than to say "i can burn a $1000". There is an
interesting study about minorities and singalling goods:
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1963
(BTW, there are obviously goods that signal things other than
wealth ... and arguably an apple laptop sends a stronger signal
about something other than income). --psb
\_ Lots of Burning Man camps are literally signalling "I can
burn $1000s" to peers and potential mates. -ausman
\_ I've never been to BM, what does this mean? I thought
a bunch of bums just go there to have fun and watch
naked women dance while drinking alcohol.
\_ BM is a mirror to your soul. You tend to get out of it
whatever you bring to it, I have found.
whatever you bring to it, I have discovered.
\_ I agree. Of course you could also say most of life
is like that! No one owes you a good time. --brain
\_ that's why it costs about 300 pound sterling to go.
\_ It means, that just like in the real world, women and
courtiers respond well to displays of wealth and power.
Note: displays aren't/don't have to be == to the reality.
\_ There is a whole field of game theory devoted to this.
\_ There is a whole branch of game theory devoted to this.
Needless to say, people are pretty good at distinguishing
between real and fake displays, for very important
reasons.
\_ not when they're rolling on E and doing a few lines.
\_ not when they're rolling on E and snorting a few lines
I think the people you're referring to are grown up
40 somethings who spend hours analyzing things. Not
the 20 somethings roaming around burning man.
\_ Actually, young women are pretty good about this,
not too surprisingly. Hence the literally burning
thousands of dollars comment. Nothing signals
reproductive fitness than spending thousands of
dollars on some cool toy you spent hundreds of
hours (or even better, got other's free labor) and
then burning it up.
hours building (or even better, got other's free labor)
and then burning it up.
hours building (or even better, got other's free
labor) and then burning it up.
\_ that's why young women shag guys running
startups.
\_ is this what happened to hotshot dans? |
| 2009/2/5-10 [Finance/Shopping] UID:52522 Activity:kinda low |
2/5 There's no reason only poor people should get infected by malaria.
--Bill Gates,
just before releasing a bunch of mosquitos at TED:
http://csua.org/u/ngw
\_ So he supports repealing bans on DDT?
\- the DDT ban has a interesting backstory. It is worth
reading about.
\_ There are plenty of ways to kill mosquitoes without DDT, and
mosquitoes in malaria areas have mostly developed resistance
to it. -tom
\_ DDT is quite cheap and worth distinguishing between
pesticide use and public health use. DDT can reduce
malaria without needing to kill resistant mosquitos.
\_ DDT is quite cheap and worth distinguishing between
(agri) pesticide use and public health use. DDT can reduce
malaria levels without needing to kill resistant mosquitos.
And poor people running high risks can reasonably have
a different future discount rate.
\_ DDT is only cheap to the extent that its costs are
externalized. -tom
\_ Poor people who say dont take jet planes around
the world have a big "externality" quota. And
by that measure, the costs of the "ban" on DDT
arent internalized either.
\_ Don't kid yourself; the lack of decent mosquito-
abatement programs in poor countries has virtually
nothing to do with the ban on DDT. -tom
\_ You know that DDT is still used for vector control
in quite a few countries, right? It is just not
sprayed indescriminately for ag use the way it used
to be. Is there some weird Right Wing meme about DDT
these days or something? Did Rush start talking about
it on his show or something? For some reason, I have
heard a lot about it lately.
it on his show? For some reason, I have heard a lot
about it lately.
\- It's not much of a contemporary issue and is not a
right wing issue. But there are a number of issues
common to global warming: who will bear the present
costs, technology vs behavior change as an issue,
future discount, future discount incorporating
differntial impact and resources etc. There are also
some analogous problems when it comes to antibiotics ...
but I'm trying to avoid getting into long motd
conversations, so i'll leave it at that. |
| 2008/7/23-28 [Finance/Shopping] UID:50663 Activity:nil |
7/23 Sometimes Fedex is actually cheaper (huge boxes) and sometimes
USPS is cheaper. Media (book/CD) in particular is the cheapest
with USPS but many items I sell on eBay are not CDs/books. UPS
has rarely been cheap for me. This is all very confusing and
eating up my profit margins. Is there a site that'll help me
find out which service would be cheaper for the different types
of packages I send out?
\_ I'm curious about this as well. I was just checking all 3 sites
for every package.
\_ Just add shipping as a cost borne by the purchaser on EBay. |
| 2008/7/23-28 [Reference/Tax, Finance/Shopping] UID:50661 Activity:high |
7/23 So tom, how does it feel to be rich? You're in the top 10% you know.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121659695380368965.html
\_ Where are the numbers for all the other taxes we pay, like
payroll, sales, etc? Oh yeah, just ignore all the facts that
don't advance your pro-inherited wealth ideology.
\_ So, how does it feel to be an anonymous coward? -tom
\_ I'm not pro-tax by any means, but isn't it pathetic that the
top 1% of the country earns double what the bottom 50% does? It
would not necessarily be positive even if the chart showed the top
1% paying 99% of the taxes if they also earn 99% of the income
leaving the other 99% to fight over crumbs. Also, I'd like to see a
similar chart which shows after-tax income.
\_ Why is it pathetic?
\_ No! The standard of living has improved for every segment
\_ You think this is a Good Thing?
\_ No. I just don't find it very surprising. The bottom 50%
are economically rather useless. Supply and demand...
why would a single diamond be worth more than a ton of
normal rocks?
\_ I have more respect more American workers than that.
I could see if you said bottom 10%, but bottom HALF?
\_ Everyone in the bottom half is "below average".
And "average" isn't very good in this country
(or any other country, really). I'm not saying
they're worthless. But they aren't rare snowflakes
and they're probably not even trying that hard to
improve themselves, as long as they have their
food + home + sex.
\_ I actually think American workers have a
strong work ethic and are among the best in
the world. It's interesting that when foreign
management employs US workers they can
achieve amazing results that US management cannot.
I am not prepared to write-off millions of US
workers. Those workers made us the economic
engine we are today and by continually
outsourcing, placing low expectations on them, and
taking advantage of them, we are getting what we
deserve. I'd rather have 10 poorly educated
American workers with a work ethic over 10
over-educated Europeans workers who whine all
the time and expect lots of time off. BTW,
average and median are two different things.
I am not sure that 50% of US workers are
actually "below average".
\_ Spoken like a dumb patriot.
\_ Spoken like someone who knows how hard
Americans work. Check out average
work-weeks.
\_ They are the bottom 50% lowest paid people.
Why do you think they have a strong work
ethic? Who knows what they do? Anyway,
there may be a lot of part time workers in
those statistics -- part time working parents,
or school kids with jobs. The top 50%
makes 88% and 12% for the bottom.
Without more data to go on, I don't see a
reason to get too excited. And I'm not
going to do a bunch of research right now.
\_ 1. I've actually been in the workplace
and seen that salary does not
correlate to work ethic
2. Just look at the statistics for
number of hours worked per week
3. If you don't see a problem with half
the country making 12% of the income
then there's no hope for you anyway.
You got yours, right?
\_ 1. Work ethic isn't good enough. You
can work hard but if you're stupid
or otherwise not valuable it does
not mean jack. There are billions
of people on Earth and merely
working N hours isn't very valuable.
\_ I beg to differ. If you're willing
to work hard there's a lot of
inherent value in that even if
you're stupid. Someone has to
build roads, harvest crops, work
the cash register, and so on.
\_ But anybody can work that cash
register. That's the point.
There is no scarcity of bodies
willing to do unskilled work
for a few bucks. Therefore
the value is low. Supply and
demand.
\_ Anybody can work it. Not
everyone has the work
ethic to show up on time
and do it for 8 hours
per day 250 days per year.
You can't say "well that's
without value". It is wasting
\_ If it had real value it
wouldn't be underpaid. duh
\_ You don't really
believe this do you?
The price pressures are
external to the US
markets. Think of
how much $$$ we could
save by outsourcing our
management for
lower-paid foreign
management instead
of saying that a
person making $9/hour
is overpaid because
someone in India can do
the job for $1/hour.
We could save more
by cutting that 88%
of earners versus
putting more pressure
on the 12% half.
\_ The companies are
run/owned by these
88%. You can't cut
them. The entire
point is they are
not drones being
told what to do by
somebody higher up.
They are the top.
Responsibility.
What world do you live in
which is full of fuckups
who can't even show up
to an easy job? Working
\_ The real world. I
can tell you never
managed low-level
employees before.
the Safeway cash register
is air conditioned and
they can take breaks.
You don't need one person
to do it 250 days a year
either, there are shifts.
\_ You need *someone*
there 250 days per year
when they say they
are going to be there.
Compare to Europe where
such employees make
more to do less.
\_ Why Europe? Try
a country without
a generous benefits
which make work
effectively
unnecessary.
a valuable resource in a
menial task that could be
doing something less menial
if big business realized it
and took advantage of
it. This is what US
management overlooks and
foreign management does not.
They know how valuable it is,
because they don't have that.
Addendum: Have you noticed
that as salaries have fallen
(due to global competition
and outsourcing) that jobs
that "anyone can do" are
being done poorly? I had to
call AT&T and I was ready to
praise God when I finally was
transferred to a CSR in
Atlanta versus an "anyone" in
India and the Philippines.
But supposedly this American
is overpaid and needs to
be outsourced when earning
her share of 12% of the
income in the country. BS.
\_ No I haven't noticed
that. AT&T does not give
a shit about CSRs because
you're still their
customer and their
competition also has crap
CSRs. I pick low price vs
good CSRs every time. You
should pay extra for your
precious CSRs. Also: you
are assuming that CSR is
bottom 50% -- unfounded.
But hey, they need no
education and only need
to be able to communicate.
You have a weird worldview
if you think that alone
deserves top-50% income.
\_ It doesn't deserve
top-50% income.
What it deserves
is more than 12%
of the pie.
\_ Why? They mostly
are living just
fine, and better
than billions.
2. see above
3. It's not half the country, it's half
the income tax filers. Did you go
to school? I don't remember everyone
having a strong work ethic. We're in
a globalized economy where people's
simple jobs of the past are more
cheaply done by foreigners who are
cheaper and more motivated. That said
most people in this country still live
very well even with low wages.
\_ So your argument is that there
are a lot of retirees and students
skewing the statistics? I find that
hard to believe. Regardless, those
people need to survive, too.
Just because someone is retired
doesn't mean their income can go to
zero.
\_ We haven't talked about their
income going to 0. We've talked
about their share of the income
pie. The pie is pretty huge.
\_ All the more disgusting that
the top 5% get most of it.
\_ They create most of it.
\_ You don't really
believe that do you?
Are they valuable?
Yes. Are they
generating value-added
commensurate with
income? No. How many
CEOs rake in millions
while their companies
(and share price) go
into the toilet?
http://tinyurl.com/8n8ro
I would argue McNealy
gets a pass for what
he's done for the
company, but maybe
not. Do companies pay
for past success or
present results?
\_ But look at the
long term growth.
Long term economic
growth is phenomenal
and all the drones
benefit from this.
The drones do not benefit from _/
this. The average wage for American
workers has not gone up since
the 70s. For workers with no
college degree, it has actually
gone down.
\_ I don't think wages tell the whole story. Would you
rather live with an average wage in an average town
in 1975 or now?
Does that wage figure include "supplemental
compensation" like health insurance, retirement
plans, and social security payments made by
employers? Or the quality of health care? Or
technological advancements such as cell phones
and PCs?
This report is interesting:
http://www.bea.gov/scb/pdf/2008/07%20July/D-Pages/0708dpg_d.pdf
Check out "Supplements to wages and salaries" as a
percentage of national income.
And consider:
Population went from 200M to 300M since 1970,
and the global economy is much more competitive.
\_ The gains have almost entirely gone to the top:
http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/saez-UStopincomes-2006prel.pdf
Look at the chart labled "Real Annual Income
Growth by Groups" I don't think that increases
in the cost of health insurance really should be
considered as increases in the standard of
living, though perhaps I would feel differently
if I was in bad health.
\_ Well, ok. But the population size has grown
tremendously and a huge number are foreign
born. The economy has accommodated them
and still grown. By 2050, 1 in 5 of the US
population is projected to be hispanic.
This part is interesting:
"The evidence suggests that top incomes
earners today are not "rentiers" deriving
their incomes from past wealth but rather are
"working rich," highly paid employees or new
entrepreneurs"
Massive immigration and global competition
depressed wage growth for the lower groups.
Jobs that are more independent of this type
of competition see big gains, like doctors.
The best thing for the lower classes here
would be to improve conditions in Mexico
and have a lower population growth there.
I guess this brings us back to the
global inequality/barbarians in Rome theory.
\_ I am in agreement with you.
\_ No! The standard of living has improved in every segment
of wealth and it's none of your business to implement
progressive tax, that's COMMUNISM!!! -libertarian
\_ I said I'm not pro-tax. I don't necessarily think raising
taxes solves any problems. It just seems to make
government larger. It doesn't really help anyone.
However, what other ways can we address this inequality?
\_ Inequality has never been a problem throughout the
history of empires. The Roman emperors knew that long
time ago. As long as the populace has bread (beer+pizza)
and circus (football, plasma), there will never be
issues for the governing party.
\_ So how did that whole Rome thing work out for them?
\_ It worked quite well for a very, very long time.
The US is a young nation in comparison.
\_ How can you say inequality was not a problem with
a straight face when it caused the entire
Western civilization to collapse into
centuries of Dark Ages?
\_ My point is as long as people have bread
and circuses there will not be a problem.
panem et circenses.
\_ My point is that your point is wrong,
because Rome fell and set the world
back at least 500 years, if not more,
as a result. So clearly there were some
problems.
\_ Your notion that Rome's fall was the
fault just of "inequality" is silly.
There was no one single thing. There
were huge tribal migrations, plagues,
climate changes (hey hey), cultural
turbulence with Christianity and then
Islam etc. Rome kept going in the east
anyway... if the world was set back
then that probably goes back to the
fall of the Republic and onset of
Christianity.
\_ Especially since early Rome was not
especially egalitarian, with slaves,
very restricted citizenship rights,
etc., but it flourished just fine.
\_ Actually, inequality was probably
the greatest contributor. Why?
Because the barbarians wanted
what Rome had and because Rome
consumed more resources than it
could honestly produce sustainably
except through conquest (sound
familiar?). It was only late
in the game that the Romans
started to grant citizenship
to foreigners in an effort to
prevent a total collapse as it
became more and more difficult
to defend the far-flung Empire
from people ticked off at their
inequitable treatment so that
wealthy Romans could have
gold-plated toilets. Inequality
here doesn't refer to classes
within Roman citizenry as much as
it does inequality between Romans
and the rest of the world,
including occupied territories and
Roman residents never granted
citizenship.
\_ And here I thought it was the Barbarians
that sacked Rome.
\_ I can only shake my head in disbelief at
this statement.
\_ What, you think the Romans sacked
themselves? It was the Visigoths, in
410.
\_ Forest for the trees, dude. |
| 2008/4/3-9 [Finance/Shopping, Transportation/PublicTransit] UID:49656 Activity:nil |
4/3 What is cheapest parking near Embarcadero / Montgomery BART?
Yes I know this is a weird question.
\_ The St. Mary's Square garage was last I checked (2006).
Anything at about $20 is good.
Anything at about $20 is good (north of Market).
\_ No, it is not weird at all. You can park in SOMA, at 2nd and
Folsom, for $12/day. The address is 303 2nd St. You can park
one block further away at 600 Harrison St, for $10/day. The
area is mildly seedy after dark, but mostly safe these days. -ausman |
| 2007/12/20-29 [Finance/Shopping] UID:48846 Activity:low |
12/20 anyone got a source of good looking free clip art for network
diagram type stuff, suitable for use in Inkscape or Opendraw?
Yes I am too cheap to buy Visio.
\_ Doesn't this question come up about every other week?
\_ It sure does! I tried Inkscape, couldn't handle it.
\_ too cheap for visio, but are you cheap enough to use xfig ?
google for 'network diagram' and 'linux' and you'll find a host of
other free options too.
\_ http://www.openclipart.org |
| 2007/12/5-7 [Finance/Shopping, Finance/Investment] UID:48748 Activity:high |
12/4 Fed's guide to save the economy (feel free to add):
-print more money
-lower interest rate
\_ that sounds more like a recipe for inflation to me.
\_ Inflation might save the economy by allowing us to pay back
debts with cheap dollars. In fact, I think this is the idea.
\_ Is there a less painful way to get rid of the huge debt than
inflating it to insignificance?
\_ Exactly. Inflation isn't always bad from the government's
perspective. Inflation has worked before, and it'll work again.
-finish collapsing the dollar so we can switch to the Amero!
- Bushonomics in action
\_ What exactly is Bushonomics? More tax cuts? Unlikely in
the light of the Federal deficit.
\_ Massive deficit spending, tax cuts, more defence spending.
Continuing to drive down the value of the dollar in hopes
of closing the trade gap.
\_ How are we supposed to close the trade gap when the US
doesn't actually produce much that the world wants to buy?
Start selling US properties?
\_ Developing countries buying US properties is an
interesting situation. By buying a US asset, they
are effectively investing in the US economy, instead
of their own. Buying a US asset or US services pumps
money into the US economy.
Obviously, if US stuff was cheap enough the world
would want to buy it. They already buy lots of our
big ticket items like jumbo jets, large industrial
equipment, etc. Most Chinese manufacturing is not
so specialized that you couldn't just do it here if
it was cost effective.
\_ It will never be as cost effective, because the
US cares more about worker rights, the
environment, consumer safety, and so on.
\_ Never is a long time.
-Start a new war
-Stop foreclosures by bailing out dumb asses. |
| 2007/11/29-12/6 [Recreation/Travel/LasVegas, Finance/Shopping, Finance/Banking] UID:48711 Activity:nil |
11/29 I just found out that I am American Indian. The White Man took
away my ancestors' ancestral lands, stuck them in camps, you know,
the usual. I am perfectly functional member of society. What
are some cool ways I can take advantage of my status? Can I
get cheap loans? Grants? ok tnx.
\_ What percentage and what tribe? I understand that With some tribes
you can get grants, or casino funds. I think for most tribes you
don't get jack. But, IANAI.
\_ Become an alcoholic.
\_ Can you prove it? There are lots of Native Americans who cannot
prove that they are because of poor documentation. If you can't
prove it then forget it.
\_ Live on the Res.
\_ Tell us what tribe and I might be able to tell you your chances of
getting anything from this, but: you need to be enrolled, the tribe
doesn't have to enroll you even if you qualify on paper, most tribes
with money require that you live on the res and despite what some
motd posters think, the typical tribe member is not sitting in that
casino hotel jacuzzi snorting coke with $100 bills.
\_ Are you crazy? Try $20 bills. |
| 2007/1/17-25 [Finance/Shopping] UID:45557 Activity:nil |
1/17 What's the cheapest and most effective way to monitor your credit?
My CC company is offering an Identity Protection program where they
monitor your credit every day for $9.95/month. Is there anything
cheaper than this? |
| 2006/11/10-12 [Recreation/Dating, Finance/Shopping] UID:45317 Activity:high |
11/10 Hi sodans. Engagement rings again. What do people think of a 0.70
carat ring at http://bluenile.com for $2,500 (+$500=$3K for setting)? Will
her parents think I'm cheap? My SO has indicated that she would rather
spend the money on something useful (car, crap, etc.). Do women really
want 1 carat minimum? I know about Apollo Diamond, but it's not
mature (ob blood diamond discussion). Also, is a Signature Ideal
diamond really that much better than a Very Good cut diamond? Thanks.
\_ It's fine. Be glad you found a women that has a bit more
sense than just how big a ring you can give her. Why would it
matter what her parents think? I bought my wife something
similar to what you are thinking of getting. Out of the
four C's, I go for cut, color, clarity, and carat in that
order. The better cut does give a better "fire".
\_ I bought my wife's engagement ring for less than $300 and wedding
ring for less than $1k. Now *that* was cheap. We put the money on
properties, cars (not fancy ones) and savings instead.
\_ Before you buy anything, check out the past discussions on "debeers"
and "De Beers" in the MOTD archive.
\_ We have synthetic diamonds now. Screw De Beers. -!op
\_ If someone came up with a process to create diamond rings
for like $100 that match today's $3000 ones, would people
still value giving those?
\_ I hope not. Down with jewlrey!
\_ Yeah. But from the MOTD archive, De Beer "also started a PR
program to convince people that synthetic diamonds are like
cheating by buying a cubic zirconia and that if you really
love your woman you'll get her a 'real' diamond." So don't
fall to that BS.
love your woman you'll get her a 'real' diamond."
\_ If you really love your woman, you'll buy her this jar
filled with the blood of african children killed so that
rich people can show off their bad taste. $3000 OBO.
\_ You know, It actually would not be crazy to try to start
something where one pays 3000 dollars for a 100 dollar
piece of jewlery plus a 2900 dollar loan/grant to a
non-diamond related African business. If this caught
on, men could avoid being called cheap, but have a net
positive effect instead of net negative effect on the
African economy.
\_ You're insane. Yes, let's buy milk bottle rings
for our wives and send millions of dollars every
year to stuff the pockets of which corrupt what?
Seriously, you're either a troll or you've never
had a girlfriend.
\_ GO DE BEAH!
\_ Her parents have nothing to do with it. If you still care about
her/your/anyone else's opinion on how you live your life at this
level you're likely not ready for a serious relationship. It is
none of their business. You should talk with her about it. As far
as size of the stone goes, see above about the 4 Cs. Cut is most
important because that is the shape of the stone. Good color and
clarity will make whatever you have look better. Carat count
beyond about .5 or .6 is all about showing off to the Jones'.
Unless you're marrying the Jones' or her parents don't worry about
that. Also, most marriages that end in divorce do so because of
money problems. Don't spend a zillion bucks on a rock and a party
just to get divorced 6 months later because you're broke and every
penny spent is a big fight.
\_ Do you get one diamond engagement ring plus a diamond wedding ring
later? Or is that the same ring? Also, I thought you're supposed to
have the ring when you propose, not discuss it.
\_ The wedding ring is not supposed to have a rock in it. It's
supposed to be a band, representing eternity. Maybe op should
get a mobious strip ring.
\_ Typically engagement ring has the diamond. Your fiance
wears that between your engagement until your wedding
day. She doesn't wear that ring at the ceremony because
the wedding band is suppose to go on first. Something
to do with "closer to the heart." She slips the
engagement ring back on (band first, then ring) after
the ceremony.
\_ ok thanks, I guess I was always a bit confused about that
\_ And of course, it's common to get them as a set so they can
be welded together after the wedding.
\- ObDeBeers=EvilFuckers:
http://home.lbl.gov:8080/~psb/Articles/Politics/DeBeers=Evil.txt
\_ I agree. I think it's silly to buy diamonds.
Fortunately I married a woman who agrees. -pp
\_ After all that is being said and the evil of De Beer. Do
keep in mind, that 20 years down the road, the diamond will
still be a diamond, but other things that you might have
bought with the diamond money, such as that plasma TV, the
killer laptop, will probably be out of service and money
down the toilet. ;)
\_ Of course, if you invested, 20 years down the road you will
probably have doubled your money.
\- "a diamond is still a diamond" is not an argument.
part of the "problem" with diamonds ... again de beers
is partly responsible ... is there is no real secondary
mkt for diamonds. while the diamond is durable [assuming it
doesnt get stolen or lost], it isnt liquid. given that
a "used" diamond should be as good as a new diamond,
it's the depressed value of "used" diamonds that is
interesting [compare to high value of "used" DVDs].
3.5% return = double money in 20yrs. [ob nominal/real
disclaimer]
\_ Or put another way: The TV depreciates over a few years,
the diamond depreciates instantly!
\- that's a compelling way of putting it. and gives me an
excuse to contrast it to the depreciation of other
things. shoes get worn out. tv also gets worn out but
more importantly quality goes up and prices fall.
in the case of a car, it wears out, the quality goes
up, and there is the mkt for lemons informations
up, and there is the mkt for lemons information
aysmmetry problems [you dont know if the car has
been in an accident ... not generally a problem
with TVs ... although it is true TVs unlike cars
dont have an odometer ... on the other hand a tv
pretty much jut does one thing: have a picture,
which cars have transmission, tires, body, cosmetic
issues suspension etc]. so really a diamond is sort
of like a DVD ... it really doesnt wear out and what
you see should be what you get [minus the small chance
the DVD is scratch ... but surely you can get a
guarantee it will play fine]. but a DVD really doesnt
depreciate much at all! and the diamond is something
you would expect would hardly depreciate ... it doesnt
get worn out, they dint get cheaper or better over
time, there isnt much info asymmetry [except maybe
some chance it is stolen ... not also the very idea
of "used vs new gold" is silly], it's price would be
the panda says "no!" _/
\- http://csua.org/u/hfz
determined by the double coincidence of wants
[finding somebody who wants that size/cut etc] ...
again the same as a DVD [think about regional codings
fucking up the secondary mkt]. so the immense
depreciation can only be explained by factors outside
the depreciation of the product itself, i.e. debeers.
[for the DVD contrast, compre the price of used DVDs
to the amazon new price, for popular selections.
not also the negative premium for non-USA region
DVDs].
\_ The only reason diamonds cost so much is because everyone else
wants them (because of advertisements that suggest bigger diamond==
commitment), and there is a strict control of supply set by the
diamond cartel. If diamonds were mined and sold in a completely
free market the price would plummet to less than 1/10 of its
current value right now.
\- it's more complicated than debeers just pushing bigger
diamonds. they push different trends based on what part
of the stock they want to push. like going from large
solitares to 3 smaller stones past/present/future rings
because a large number of smaller diamonds came on line.
read the home.lbl.gov link.
\_ Episode from South Park: Kyle asks his dad for money to
buy the latest and greatest Chinpokemon toy. His dad explains
that it is a fad and he doesn't have to be a part of it. In
fact he can make an even stronger statement by saying that
he's an individual. Kyle responds "Yes I understand. Now let
me tell you how it works in the real world. In the real world,
I can either get a Chinpokomon, or I can be the only kid
without one, which singles me out, and causes the other kids
to make fun of me and kick my ass." Dad agrees and gives him
money.
My advice to you-- yes DeBeers is evil, but so are many
corporations and cartels out there. Get the fucking diamond
anyways. You seriously don't want to be an outcast or a weirdo
and be ridiculed in the society, do you?
\- this is why guys not in a bind and before The Ring becomes
an issue should give Liberal girls a hard time about the
acceptability of diamonds. look at furs ... nobody i know
under at least 45 is expected to buy the wife a fur ...
at least not in northern california. do any normal women
under say 45 own +$5000 fur coats? ... i dont include
people from texas or people who own +$1000 chihuahuas,
but i do include people with multimillion dollars who
clearly could afford it. even a ridculously expensive
watch is better. in fact next time i see some women
friends of mine, i'll have to bring it up.
\_ Is there 10x the supply of diamonds that there is of, say,
emeralds or rubies?
\- De Beers bot controls the supply [by stockpiling
\- De Beers both controls the supply [by stockpiling
the production, as well as conrolling access
to high high end stone to high high end
jewelers] but also doesnt a lot of work on
jewelers] but also does a lot of work on
the demand side ... and i think what they
do on the demand side is kinda sleazy.
it's one thing to advertise something like
car to an adult ... he should be able to
control his spending urges. but in he case
of diamonds for something like engagement
rings, it puts the man in this weird position
[as per the OP ... "will my inlaws think i am
cheep"] and is in a sense not fighting fair.
just like there is a sleaziness marketing say
junk food to kids so they will cause a scene
at the airport ... except this is more indsidious
since at least society would back if not
encourage the parent's right to fight the
peopel advertising to their kids. a guys
cant really himself bring up "dont be a de beers"
to his fiancee.
to his fiancee. i guess he could give her a
copy of one of the "debeers expose" books ...
[i consider it a good deed to talk about
debeers with liberal fiancee's of friends] |
| 2006/10/31-11/1 [Politics/Domestic/California, Finance/Shopping] UID:45050 Activity:high |
10/31 10 part "Economics for the Citizen." (very basic)
http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0503g.asp
\_ My summary from reading the intro and the last paragraph-- there
is a cost of doing something, and there is a cost of not doing
something. In most cases one will be more costly than the others,
but it is often not so clear which one is cheaper/costlier at the
time that you needed to make a decision.
\_ The long version (by Sowell)
http://csua.org/u/hbx
\_ The short version: "THE INVISIBLE HAND IS ALL-POWERFUL!
LALALALALA!"
\_ Let me guess, you like big government beauracracy and wastage?
\_ Let me guess, you like knocking down straw men?
\_ Fuck you talking 'bout? --Da Invisible Hand
\_ He's a bit of a male chauvinist, isn't he?
\_ You mean how he beliddles his wife, something else? |
| 2006/10/7-10 [Finance/Shopping] UID:44715 Activity:nil |
10/7 All the Tower Records will close. Liquidation and cheap items now.
\_ how cheap? (how much is a typical CD album going for?) |
| 2006/7/11-18 [Finance/Shopping] UID:43634 Activity:nil |
7/11 Hi Im shopping for a new phone contract. I want a cool phone.
I'm also cheap. What should I do? Are there cool stuff
on Amazon?
\_ 1. what do you mean by "cool?" do you want phone that looks good?
ultra thin? or you want your phone dubbed as a mp3 player? PDA?
do you want MMS? do you want download email, look up something
on the web? and use your phone as a dial-up modem when no WIFI
hotspot is available?
2. you said you are cheap. but you need to put things into
perspective. Retail wise, a decent phone cost between $200-300.
Cheap model cost about $100. You will not find anything
significantly cheaper than $100 unless you are willing to go for
TCL or Bird. Any decent PDA phone is going to cost you roughly
the same as a cheap laptop. Bare that in mind, you can think
about how much a carrier is willing to subsidize, you can come up
with a reasonable budget for a phone. |
| 2006/5/9-10 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/China, Finance/Shopping] UID:42989 Activity:low |
5/9 Dear motd. Suppose a friend wants to maximize his wedding plans and
would like to get the biggest bang for the bucks. He would like to
invite as many people to the banquet as possible without
losing too much money and without pissing people off. The only way
to do so is by having the wedding back in Asia, which is not an
option for him since most of his friends are in California. He's
thinking about inviting as many close friends as possible so that
red envelopes would recoup some of the costs, while minimizing
the number of non-Asian people since they rarely give red envelopes.
By the way I don't want to get into the whole topic of why many
Americans we've met are so culturally insensitive, ignorant,
careless, and rude that they give gifts instead of traditional
auspicious red envelopes with amounts that at least recoup the
cost of the wedding banquet. We especially want to avoid inviting
non-Asians people who may unknowingly give really really cursed
items like clocks, knives, and things that end up with the number
four, or uneven number of things-- one more reason to not invite
non-Asians. Anyways, depending on the quality of food and where he
holds the banquet, each table is ~$500 for 10 people, and if he
invites too many non-Asians he'll end up losing a lot of money and
have bad luck. What's the best way to go about this? Is it ok to
invite everyone to the vow thing and then exclude non-Asians to the
banquet as to decrease bad luck and increase overall fortune of
the year? Thanks so much for any advice.
the year? Thanks so much for any advice.
\_ This is clearly a simple optimization problem with several variables
and a few unknown constants. We who study this problems cannot help
because your unknown constants cannot be determined without the a
certain about uncertainty (how odd), and perhaps a cultural anthropoligist.
If offending your non-Asian friends costs you more money in terms of lost
gifts than would be recouped by Red Envelopes, then you must avoid
inviting Asians at all. Don't forget you could always sell the gifts
on E-bay. The tricky part comes when analyzing the bad-luck gifts.
Just how much income will you lose from dieing early if given a small clock
vs. a large clock. This we cannot know. Now to be serious.
Weddings are for your family and friends, not yourself you selfish bastard.
certain about uncertainty (how odd), and perhaps a cultural
anthropoligist. If offending your non-Asian friends costs you more
money in terms of lost gifts than would be recouped by Red
Envelopes, then you must avoid inviting Asians at all. Don't
forget you could always sell the gifts on E-bay. The tricky part
comes when analyzing the bad-luck gifts. Just how much income will
you lose from dieing early if given a small clock vs. a large clock.
This we cannot know. Now to be serious. Weddings are for your
family and friends, not yourself you selfish bastard.
\_ 80 column your ass, you inconsiderate bastard.
\_ Your friend's mentality is completely fucked up and completely
misinterperate the tradition.
The way it suppose to work is actually rather simple. At the
front of the benquet, there is typically a team of three or four
that acted as account receivable. As soon as the guest give out
the envelope, the account receivable will 1. OPEN THE ENVELOPE,
COUNT THE MONEY HE/SHE GAVE, and 2. write down how much he/she gave
out in the "income statement."
Why keep such record? because when it's his/her turn to get
married, you typically give the same amount back as SOCIAL NORM
dictates.
In other word. The tradition is designed to, effectively, lend
the money to the new couples, when they need the money the most,
and return the money to him/her when it's their turn to get married.
The only exception to the rule is that you happened to have some
rich friends and you happens to be poor. The tradition allow
the wealthy to channel the funds to those in needs without having
the recipein losing face.
The social norm dictates that if you are out of town and have little
chance to attend other's wedding, then, don't have such banquet.
or says flat out in the invitation that red envelopes will NOT be
accepted. and Yes, having such statement in the invitation is not
as uncommon as you think.
In short, stop being a cheap bastard in the name of tradition.
kngharv
\_ Hang on--this doesn't make sense. So let's say I'm single and
I "lend" $100 to my newlywed friend in his time of greatest
financial need as a wedding "gift". If I ever get married,
according to your setup, he would simply be "repaying" me if
he gave me $100 as a gift, not "lending" to me in my time of
greatest financial need. How about, if you're going to give
a cash gift, just look at it as just that, a gift? -John
\_ You are right. It is cash gift. But there is an unspoken
rule that when it's your turn to get married, he/she will
also gives you the money in return. How he determine
how much he is going to give you? he digs out the income
statement and look at how much you gave the last time and
start from there. There are a lot of factors involved and
I was simplifying it to make a point. What are other factors?
the place where he/she held banquet, for example. Normally
we try to rough guess how much each head cost in a particular
place and try to make sure the margin I made on my wedding
is roughly the same margin he is going to make. There is no
hard rule here. People is not going to hold anything against
you if you forgot to factor in, for example, inflations.
Because a wedding invitation == money. There is a phenomenon
which you may find interesting. It is typically for a bride/
groom to have couple extra tables, and there will be people
come to the banquet uninvited. The logic behind such
uninvited guest is following:"you may think you and I don't
know each other well enough for you to ask money for me, but
I felt I am good enough friend for you and thus I will attend
your banquet, give you my blessing and of course cash gift."
fun? kngharv
\_ Ok let's say I give $100 to my friend and 10 years passed
and it's my turn to get married. Should he give me $100 plus
inflation rate? Also what if I get married 10 times, is that
fair?
\_ If you get married 10 times, you need all the help you
can get...
\_ Don't invite these people to the wedding at all. Instead,
hold a party for all your friends a few weeks afterwards (or
whenever you're recovered from the wedding). It'll be much
cheaper, they won't feel obligated to give you gifts you don't
want, and everyone will probably have more fun anyway.
\_ Yes but in the Chinese tradition, the more the merrier.
\_ There are really two things at work here: a) you're a cheapass
bastard, and b) you're a superstitious bastard. Why should the
motd work for you if you're not going to do anything for the motd
in return?
\_ You should have listened to your mom: Study more and stop hanging
around with those white folk. Bad for grades!
\_ Now that I'm older, I know better :( Mommy says the whities
I hang around with blow all their incomes on pleasure instead
of real estate, do drugs, and don't study. I'm a bad son. -op
\_ True (sad) story:
I gave a set of really expensive knives as a wedding gift to
one of my best friends. Within a year his wife had filed for
divorce and shortly after that (before the divorce even went
through) she died in a car accident. I am not superstitious,
but lots of people told me knives are 'bad' gifts. I won't try
that again. By the way, your post is a poor attempt at a troll.
\_ Is your friend Chinese? Whether it's your fault or not, one
thing is certain: the Chinese community gossips a lot, and
most of them by now think that you're an yang chi idiot and
will not invite you to their weddings.
\_ Jesus H. Christ are really such an egotist that you think
any of this bad luck had anything to do with what YOU bought
as a wedding gift?
\_ "I am not superstitious". No, I don't. However, when
there are so many other gifts to give, I won't chance it.
\_ "I'm not superstitious, I just won't step on cracks in
the sidewalk." -tom
\_ I did once and my mother's back broke. Why chance it?
\_ The only reason I wouldn't give someone a knife as a
wedding gift is think how bad I'd feel if there was
a really bad fight and a spouse stabbed the other
with the knife I bought. Don't give weapons as gifts.
\_ Ditto above about the troll, but generally, a lot of us hairy
barbarian gwailo gaijin types don't know about these superstitions,
and I find it pretty interesting to learn this sort of stuff.
Maybe include a little primer or something? Or would people find
that condescending? And not to sound insensitive, but do you (pp)
really blame the knives? -John
\_ Red envelopes are very auspicious. But you can't just put in
ANY money, you have to put in nice clean bills, as a sign of
purity. The amount must be even number, and the term
"double happiness" should be reflected. $22, $222, $2222 are
extremely good. Also ba, the number 8 is VERY VERY good. $88,
$888 are very good. Never, ever, give things that have 4 in
them, because it is just one tone away from the word death.
Wedding registry gifts-- they're ok if the Chinese guy is a
total ignorant banana in which case anything goes, so better
ask if the groom/bride are ABC bananas. NEVER, EVER give knives
and clocks unless you want the gossipy Chinese community
to hate you for the rest of your life. Clock is the same tone
as "your demise", or "RIP". And BTW it's not uncommon to not
invite whities to Chinese banquets because often they have
exotic food that piss off foreigners, or that the foreigners
start to become annoying and authoritative and ask silly
questions about the food (you just don't question their
culture, just accept it at the wedding ok?). So if you're a
whitie and you're invited, you should feel proud of yourself
for making it in the inner circle. Lastly the Chinese culture
says if you have a vacation home in Santiago Chile you are
obligated to offer them to use it any time they want. Ok
that's all I've got for now. -Motd Culture Consultant #2
\_ Haha this is actually pretty good, thanks. As for "not
inviting whiteys", I turned the "let's gross out the gaijin
for fun" around on a whole Japanese restaurant in Tokyo
once, where they all somehow felt honor-bound to choke down
the live-fish-in-sake they served us just because I chugged
them instead of making a face and sending them back. That'll
show 'em, HAH. Anyway, I thought not inviting gwailos was
just because we're funny looking and weird. So what would
be kosher non-monetary gifts then? -John
\_ So what if you give them four knives? Do they run away
screaming? ;-)
\_ This is very helpful. I kind of knew this stuff but my
Chinese friends never actually explained it. Those assholes.
They just let me infer it. So I'm gonna give them a set of
4 knives which each have a little digital clock in the handle.
Actually, they probably wouldn't give a shit. So I'll send
them to their mothers ;)
\_ Yes. Most ABC bananas today don't give a shit. But
their parents will probably have a heart attack.
So, be nice.
\_ I think John's hit this one on the nose. Turn this into an
educational experience. If some westerners consider giving
money too crass, then they shouldn't come. The point of a
wedding is to celebrate your love, not their cultural comfort
zone. Also, those red (or, in Japan, white) envelopes really
help with the cost. --erikred
\_ FYI, Japanese gives out red envelopes on weddings too.
\_ have a wedding you can afford. Your guests aren't there to pay
for your wedding you cheapass asian. -frugal asian
\_ why don't you have two banquets, Eastern and Western style
invite each guest to the appropriate one.
\_ Best idea I've seen so far. Invite friends and family to
the nice exclusive banquet with exotic gourmet shark fins,
dog meat, intestines, liver, and bobas while excluding
foreigners who may feel offended or grossed out. Then invite
the white people over to your backyard for BBQ, cheap beer,
and football. Great idea!
\_ Gwailo not appreciate gourmet shark fin. All gwailo eat
roast cow. And treat black people bad. -John
\_ I had a Vietnamese/white wedding and my wife's family all gave
red envelopes and my family all gave gifts from the registry.
But we returned almost all the gifts and got store credit, which
is almost as good. In white culture you are supposed to give a
gift which is approximately the same value as the cost of your
seat at the banquet plus wedding costs, so it is the same tradition,
almost. -ausman
\_ What the hell is "white culture"? Is that like yoghurt? -John
\_ why the heck are you registering for items you don't want? I
find these fundraising weddings to be really, rather crass.
\_ I agree, and I think Miss Manners would dispute any
inference that you are "supposed" to give any certain
value of gift. If you attend the wedding, you're supposed
to send a gift (not *bring* a gift, *send* a gift to
the couple afterwards), and as with all gifts, the giver
gets to decide how much to spend. -tom
\_ http://tinyurl.com/z8t6t
How are these numbers determined. I'm afraid that, as
romantic as weddings may be, arriving at the appropriate
value for a wedding gift tends to be based on cold, hard
economics. If you are attending the wedding, you want to
ensure that the value of your gift will cover the cost the
hosts will incur by having you in attendance. Think in
terms of the type and style of wedding, and where it will
be held. What amount do you think will be required to cover
the cost of your meal? Obviously, a cake and punch
reception in the couple's back yard will cost less than a
formal sit down meal in the city's swankiest skyline
restaurant. Once you've estimated what it will cost to
cover your meal, you'll want to add another "bonus" amount
so they actually get a gift in the end, and don't simply
recoup the cost of hosting you. Etiquette queens of days
gone by would claim that guests should never have to
consider the cost's of their host in determining what to
give as a gift. True enough, you don't have to run these
calculations, but a truly gracious guest is naturally
inclined to do so, out of their genuine desire to treat
the bride and groom, and to be generous on, what is to the
couple a very special occasion.
But there is also:
http://tinyurl.com/zwcxs
"Guests will choose a gift based on their budget and on how
well they know you. They are not obligated to cover the cost
of their meal and they should not even know how much you paid
for your reception. To give out that information is considered
bragging and has no bearing on what your guests will give."
So I guess there are various schools of thought on this one.
\_ I would not truest a website's advice on gift giving,
especially one from a industry that profits from such.
\_ We already have a house we had bought three years before,
but lots of people coming to the wedding wanted to buy
us gifts anyway. We had to come up with something. We found
a few that we actually wanted, but mostly we wanted gift
cards, but almost no one in my family gave that, because
they have that save attitude as the anonymous flamer that
it is really, rather crass. Is it better to have an attic
full of stuff you don't want? I really don't see what the
point of that is. But yeah, I didn't tell anyone I returned
their gift. No point in that. The truth is, there is no
"one size fits all cultures" answer to the question. -ausman
\_ Until they come over to your house for Thanksgiving and
wonder why you are dining on Ikeaware instead of the
Limoges china you returned for a big screen TV.
\_ If someone gives you Limoges china, why would you
not use it? Unless it's butt-ugly, of course. -John
\_ I know a lot of people who would say that the
china is nice, but that they need x and that
they can buy x (and probably y and z, too) if
they return the china that they will use only
twice per year. I think it's low class and
tacky (plus, I *like* to break out the china
unlike a lot of people) to return expensive
gifts in favor of gift cards and that, I suppose,
is my point. |
| 2006/3/16-18 [Recreation/Food, Finance/Shopping] UID:42275 Activity:high |
3/16 Do you tip in buffet restaurants? Aside from cabs and restaurants,
where else do you tip?
\_ Garbagemen, if they haul something unusual away. Also valets
and bellhops/skycaps, obviously. Pizza delivery guys. Bartenders.
\_ Garbagemen, if they haul something unusual away, valets,
bellhops/skycaps, pizza delivery guys, bartenders, and strippers.
\_ 5% in a buffet, if I feel generous.
\_ My gf's family runs a restaurant and this is what she has to say.
Some customers pay a lot and some don't. Those that pay more get
special attention and get their food and drinks served faster and
those that don't, well, her dad spits on their food. So, pay your
fucking 20% tip if you want a clean meal. PS, I'm only joking.
Seriously, she say they simply don't have the time or energy
to keep track who pays how much tip and by law they have to treat
EVERYONE with the same respect. She rarely remembers who pays
more or less tip, but the more the better of course. In another
word, NO ONE GIVES A SHIT. If you have the money and you have
to ask, just fucking pay 20-30% and forget about it, and if you
are tight on budget, don't pay. No one's gonna give you special
treatment for overpaying or hunt you down and call you a cheap ass
for underpaying tips. Shit. You're a fucking dumb ass.
\_ yer gf's family runs a buffet restaurant?
\_ yer gf's family runs a buffet or non-buffet restaurant?
\_ When you go in to a restaurant and spend $500 you definitely
get treated better than if you had spent $50. Part of the
reason is that the servers know that they will probably
(unless you're a bastard) get a much bigger tip in absolute
terms, even if not in percentage terms. If you are a regular
or if you truly appreciated the service, it makes sense to
tip more as a percentage. My sister has been a GM at many
fine restaurants (and was a server when in college) and you
can bet that she remembers specific instances when someone
was a cheap bastard or when someone was very generous.
Sometimes she even had the same person as a client again and
you bet it affected her attitude. However, this is more a case
of getting stiffed after, say, a $1000 meal (or in one case a
$10000 wedding party) rather than recalling if some schmoe tipped
15% or 20% after his once per year birthday dinner where he
spends $50. --dim
\_ Let's talk about the legality of tip, and put aside, for now
issues related to ethics, common courtesy, manner, conventions.
By law, how much must you tip?
By law, can the provider give differential treatments based on
how much tip you gave them in the past?
Can you go to jail for not paying tips?
Are you a law abiding citizen even if you never tipped?
\_ $0, but I've never heard of a law about differential treatment
based on tips, as long as you don't spit in their food, give
slow service based on race, or things like that.
\_ I don't think tips are expected there since you're supposed to
service yourself there. I would expect that tips are appropriate
where you can identify a specific indiviual who provided you a
service and who isn't being paid directly by you. Taxi-cab driver,
pizza delivery boy, and hairdesser are examples.
\_ What if the hairdresser owns its own business, and you do pay it
directly?
\_ I have tipped a copy store employee who opened up the store for me
a few minutes after closing to help me get fliers copied. I think
you should tip any exceptional service, and shouldn't feel
obligated to tip if you feel the service was bad. Everyone has to
be paid minimum wage, if you don't feel the service was good you
absolutely shouldn't tip. If the manager gets angry at you or
or something for not tipping, tell him why you didn't. -mrauser
\_ Servers do not have to be paid minimum wage, because it is
expected that they will earn tips :
http://www.opm.gov/oca/wage/minwage.asp
\_ If for some reason they don't make enough in tips to cover
min wage they have to get compensated up to minuimum wage.
However if a server can't make minimum wage on tips they
aren't going to last long.
\_ How many of these threads do we need to have? If you have any
social sense/grace at all, these questions are unnecessary.
\_ I think these are useful. What if you haven't been tipping
when it is the custom?
\_ buffet? absolutely not. what prompt service did I insure? this
whole tipping thing has gotten out of hand.
\_ Do you tip for a haircut? I don't think that's for "prompt
service". I hate that actually but I feel obligated.
\_ I tip for haircuts.
\_ Yes because I don't want my hair butchered the next time I
go back. Will they ruin the buffet when they see me coming
in the next time? I don't tip at retail clothing stores or
at the post office or the water company either.
\_ Tipping rules are based on how people are paid, not on
whether or not it will ensure better service. http://tipping.org
is the closest thing to a definitive reference that I've
found. -tom
\_ http://tipping.org? I haven't been there. Is that one of the
sites inhabited by the waiters who say you should tip
15% even if they spit in your food and 25% or higher if
they bother to refill your water glass?
\_ No. But I see you have your mind made up already,
based on nothing other than your own cheapness. -tom
\_ You see what you want to see. I asked a question.
Thanks for answering it. Bite me on the rest.
\_ I've seen those sites too. I'm not cheap, but
I don't think "15% as a BARE MINIMUM" is a policy
I'm inclined to follow.
\_ Then, yes, you are cheap. Waitstaff salaries
are set based on a presumption of a 15% tip.
(In the U.S.). Spending less than that is
cheap and a breach of etiquette, no matter
what the service was like. -tom
\_ I'm with tom up to a point. It's also
accepted that if the service was crap, 10%
is reasonable. That's what I do. I assume
the person is just having a bad day, even
though I could be totally wrong.
\_ And bad/rude service isn't a breach of
etiquette?
\_ Etiquette doesn't allow you to
retaliate for breaches of etiquette. -tom
retaliate for breaches of etiquette.
Or rather, there is an etiquette to the
ways you can retaliate. -tom
\_ I'm also with Tom up to the point of "no
matter what the service was like"--if a
waiter gives you bad service, do not tip.
I've been absolutely flabbergasted at some
of the shit waiters expect people to put up
with. -John
\_ Thanks for answering my question. You can bite me
on your bullshit opinion. You know nothing.
\_ Hair butchered? think about that for a second. if they
butcher your hair you won't go back. that is their
\_ yes but I still have to wear it for 2+ weeks and
people are stupid like that.
\_ Well, at worst you could turn it into a buzz.
And wear a hat.
\_ A good hair salon can fix that, usually. -John
incentive and that's what it should be. Why doesn't
the post office let your mail get butchered unless
you tip well? It kind of makes sense for services where
\_ who would I tip?
\_ All of 'em! Leave tips in your mailbox for the
mailman, or else the mail is mysteriously
in bad shape. Tip the guy at the counter, or
else he might just forget about your mail
for a few days, or take forever to do what
you want. I dunno.
\_ Missing the point.
\_ the mailman? the guy at the counter?
\_ you think if I tip the mm I'll get my
packages delivered faster? does he not
earn enough? a long time ago in a place far
far away when the mailman went door to door
and most people knew theirs by name my parents
gave them christmas gifts and such but I've
got a new one every day, they drive by in a
jeep and all they deliver is junk mail
anyway. :)
\_ Heh. well, according to the hair-butchering
theory, maybe the mailman should be losing
and/or damaging and/or stealing yer mail...
actually that reminds me, last year I had
a package I absolutely needed the same day,
but missed the mailman, so I drove around
the neighborhood and eventually found the
guy. It was the first time I'd talked to
him ever, but he knew our house and
we had a nice little chat. He was a little
odd, but he's a postal employee so that was
to be expected. Nice guy. I don't see why
they shouldn't be getting stuff while
others do. Then again my current mailman
always delivers the previous tenant's mail
even though I have a note there and always
mark it to send back. K I'll stop rambling.
\_ They shouldn't be getting tips
(customarily) because their wages
are not based on the presumption that
they get tips. You can't use logic
to figure it out; you can only learn
the etiquette rules. -tom
you probably never see the person again, like when you
are travelling or in the city and getting service from
various people for whom the anticipated tip is a good
incentive. But for my regular haircut it feels stupid.
Still do it of course.
\_ Whores!
\_ do you tip the cable guy when they install your broadband cable
service?
\_ I did for my satellite installer because the guy went way
out of his way, giving me his personal cell # and coming
back later that day to make up for the head office fucking
up horribly. That wasn't about customary etiquette, that
was just me saying "Thanks for not making me wait another
week for them to reschedule you." -bz
\_ I don't tip at places where I have to go to a counter to get my
food or where I have to bus my own table.
\_ what if they serve you drinks and clean your table after you
leave?
\_ If they serve drinks, I tip as I'm served (usually $1 per
drink).
\_ I used to tip at Souplantation and then I realized this was
becoming weird. Then the price increased by a couple bucks.
After googling a bit, I am going to go back to tipping $1-2, but
the Asian folks I'm usually with never tip.
the Asian grad students I'm usually with never tip.
\_ "give what you can, without hurtin' yo'self" - old Telegraph
beggar by Wells Fargo teller on Bancroft
\_ Oh my God! It's been 10 years since I saw that guy.
Last time I was in Berkeley I walked by that teller
and thought of him, but he wasn't there. My friends and
I still mention this guy from time to time. Hilarious
to find him show up in MOTD! Thanks MOTD! BTW, I think
it was: "Whatever you can spare without hurtin' yo'self."
\_ I don't remember him. I remember "Pat" who smelled
like piss and didn't say anything (and patted his head
all day), that Starr fellow, the bucket-drumming guy,
the little groups of street punks with, for example,
mini suitcase locks in their nose, and the 3-card-monte
guy who was an asshole and could get hostile. I think
there was another black semi-hostile beggar/demander.
\_ Do you remember RAR?
\_ I believe that's "RAAAAARRRRR!!!!!!!!!!". |
| 2006/3/15-17 [Finance/Shopping] UID:42252 Activity:nil |
3/15 Is it just me or it seems like Costco American Express is getting
stingier and stingier wrt the % of rebate back? It's eearily similar
to the old days when Discover+Costco had good deals and then Discover
got cheaper and cheaper till Costco dumped them.
\_ It's still 3% for restaurants and 2% for travel, right? |
| 2006/3/15-16 [Health/Women, Finance/Shopping] UID:42247 Activity:moderate |
3/15 Suggestions for cheap storage space rental in the
east bay? My requirements are... it exist.
It can be on the 2nd floor, 3rd floor, i don't care.
I don't need ground floor. I need to disappear for
about a year.
\_There is a super secure place on 3rd St. in Oakland near Jack London
Square called Safe Keep or something. Not too cheap but much better
than anything else I've seen. -scottyg
\_ I'll tell you where NOT to go. That place on Shattuck just south of
Dwight. Bad bad bad. I'm amazed my stuff didn't get stolen, the
place is falling apart and has shitty security, the people who
work there are thugs, and they're a ripoff. I shopped around a
little before I found that place, and I tend to think that you want
to be nowhere near the University if you don't want to get ripped
off. If you're leaving the area anyway, why not put your stuff in
a more rural/suburban location on the other side of the hills?
\_ find a deserted field, dig a hole, and bury it.
\_ Disappear? Storage space? Damn it, you're giving me Primer
flashbacks.
\_ That's next week. Or was it last week?
\_ How big and how cheap? Storing stuff for a year can be pretty
pricy. Like, up to $1000.
\_ Disappear? Buy a bus ticket. Don't contact anyone you know or
use the asme name. Use cash for everything. If you wrote a serious
post you might have got a serious reply.
\_ After I disappear I'm still going to troll tom anonymously.
\_ Nice to know I have anonymous supporters. -dans
\_ I'm asking for advice about finding inexpensive storage,
not tips on how to disappear. Goddamn ADD nerds.
\_ You asked stupidly, you got stupid answers. If you hadn't
posted nonsense half your replies wouldn't have been garbage.
Find a mirror, the rest of us are a-ok.
\_ No he asked one specific question. You chose to answer
a totally different one. If I asked "hey, my wife
is pregnant where is a good place to get cheap
baby supplies?" and you responded by telling me to
make sure she takes her prenatal vitamins and sees a
doctor it wouldn't be answering the question now would it?
\_ I see it is anal retentive moron day on the motd. If
he said, "Hey, my wife is pregnant where is a good place
to get cheap baby supplies? I need to disappear for a
year", it wouldn't be off topic to tell him how to hide.
But you knew that. He was dumb, several people gave
dumb replies. Tough. Being as retentive as you are
why didn't you correct his grammar errors while you
were here? And mine too? And spell check everything
and erase anything over 80 columns? Why stop where
you did? There is so much more to retain! go for it!
\_ Err, why is it anal retentive to expect that the
question asked is the one that will be answered?
If you feel like ranting senselessly on motd -- hey,
go for it: motd without senseless rants would be
boring...but it's kind of pathetic to play the victim
when you get dinged for being uselessly OT.
\_ perhaps disappearing for a year might not have to do
with hiding. perhaps it means leaving the area
without taking any of his material possessions.
\_ DING DING DING DING DING!
\_ It's the ops politburo-given right to post poorly
worded questions. It's ours to respond with snarky
mis-answers. -dans
\_ Look out for things like mold. I've known people who stuck stuff
in storage for a year or so, forgot all about them till then and
came back to find everything rotted.
\_ Most of the lots of random bins at public auctions
are from crap people have abandoned or 'forgot to pay their rent
for' at storage facilities. |
| 2006/2/1-3 [Finance/Shopping] UID:41636 Activity:nil |
2/1 Where to buy relatively cheap DVDs? I tend to like Marimax
type of semi-independent films... where can I get those for
cheap? I live overseas most of the time, so, Netflix is out of
question. I don't mind buying things used/previous viewed.
\_ Where to learn English? (sorry, j/k) |
| 2005/11/11-14 [Reference/RealEstate, Finance/Shopping] UID:40553 Activity:nil |
11/11 Are mega apt complex->condo conversion units particularly bad
to buy as homes or investments, even if you plan to own them
for a while? I'm asking because single family homes are
out of my price range.
\_ Not particularly bad, but not as good as SFRs. Find a SFR, even
if it means a city you don't like as well.
\_ What if the city with the cheapest affordable SFR is
over an hour drive away? What if the city where the
condo is has a lot of amenities, like walkable markets,
close to the beach, etc?
\_ Why do you think you can't afford the SFRs if those are
the amenities? Why do you think you *can* afford the condo? |
| 2005/11/11-12 [Finance/Shopping] UID:40543 Activity:nil |
11/11 http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9555157/site/newsweek Reality check on the housing bubble-- no bubble. The fundamentals are strong, immigrants still find million dollar homes to be cheap, and wealthy boomers are finally tapping their money to buy 2nd and 3rd homes. This is the age of the new economy! lalalalala \_ Well, now that a Newsweek columnist says it, it must be truuuuue!!! |
| 2005/10/18-19 [Finance/Shopping] UID:40150 Activity:nil |
10/17 Can anyone recommend a cheap granite fabrication outfit for the
South Bay? Thanks. (and/or supplier)
\_ granite is very hard, and machining it requires even harder tools.
such tools get warn down in the process and are quite expensive.
\_ Wouldn't you prefer to go to Rome when it's nicer weather? -John
\_ well, my usage of "cheap" here is of course relative. just
throwing it out... this process is pretty annoying |
| 2005/7/28-31 [Politics/Domestic/California, Finance/Shopping] UID:38862 Activity:high |
7/28 How is the existing global domination of IKEA, who's founder
surpasses Bill Gates as the richest man due to weakening
US currency, differ from the American domination of Walmart?
People boycott, protest, and say bad things about Walmart, but
what about IKEA?
\_ He's a lonely old miser who barely leaves the house (the IKEA guy.)
That, and IKEA doesn't have the size 30 mumus next to the family
tubs of cheap candy. I kid you not, I saw this in the first and
only Wal-Mart I ever went into. It was as close to inferno as I
ever hope to get. -John
\_ It is not Walmart's size that is the problem. It is Walmart's
behavior. -- ulysses
\_ How is Walmart's aggressive behaviour any different from
other super-mega American corporations' behaviours?
\_ Stay on topic. IKEA != American corp.
\_ Costco pays their employees a decent wage, Wal-Mart does not.
Costco gives health benefits, Wal-Mart does not, dumping the
cost onto the taxpayer. Costco allows unions to form, Wal-Mart
does not.... should I go on???
\_ You guys just don't get it. This is like thinking a minimum
wage actually helps the poor. -- ilyas
\_ So, if there was no wage, and people could be paid
$.20/hour, that would be better?
\_ I think it would. The economy is a complex machine,
but everybody wants to tinker with it, without an
understanding of what tinkering will actually do,
given the way the machine works. So if your original
tinkering doesn't work, you tinker some more! The
real art is to make a just society where people do
the natural self-interested things. I could turn your
own question on you: 'if the minimum wage was 20
dollars an hour, would that be better?' The real
question is, why are there poor people in our economy?
The poor aren't going to go away, regardless of what
you do. -- ilyas
\_ Your troll is barely amusing. The minimum wage
should be set to whatever gives people in a given
area a reasonable standard of living for a 40
hour work-week. Most poor people living on
minimum wage are barely scraping by, and there
are a lot of them. They are the ones using the
emergency room, food stamps, etc. Why do you
prefer big government programs to just plain
companies compensating employees properly?
\_ I don't prefer big government programs either.
Legislating minimum wage increases unemployment,
and fucks over the poor. Similarly for most
measures forcing companies to spend more money
on employees. -- ilyas
\_ Do you think poor people should be allowed
to be worked to death? Should the government
let poor people starve?
\_ As I mentioned in the conversation on this
topic on irc, it's very difficult to
starve in the United States. Mconst said
that in Togo they say the US is a country
where even the poor people are fat.
-- ilyas
\_ After 100 years of big government
intervention in the economy, it is
hard. It was not hard at the
turn of the century. You want to
bring us back to those days.
\_ Yes, of course, you want to claim
the cause of American prosperity
was 100 years of attempts at
socialism, whereas in reality
America prospered in spite of, not
because of it. I ve seen what
actual socialism does, you haven't.
-- ilyas
\_ No, the cause of American
prosperity is the combination
of government, business,
eductation and other efforts
over the last 100 years. The
ameliortion of the worst forms
of poverty and abuses of
capitalism were done because
of the popular will, exercised
through the political process.
You are like the man that was
bitten badly by a dog as a
child and persists in believing
that all dogs are evil.
\_ No, I just saw the 'wall of
cheese.' -- ilyas
\_ But if the min wage is increased, then the
wage required to get a "reasonable standard
of living" (define pls) must increase. It
creates unemployment and harms the ability
to get a job of the very people who would
most have trouble getting a better job.
Instead of min wage you might as well do the
zero unemployment economy thing and create
taxpayer-subsidized "jobs". They do some of
that in Europe.
\_ Wal-Mart also gives health benefits.
\_ Less than most companies:
http://csua.org/u/cv2
\_ That's not what the claim above is.
\_ Much of the Walmart hate stems not from the family founders
being filthy rich (worth billions), but the fact they are so
chincy in providing benefits to their employees. When you
have over $22,000,000,000 why would 1) you force your workers
to pay relatively high health care premiums, 2) hire illegal
aliens, and 3) discriminate against female workers in pay and
promotions. Those 3 thorny issues haven't plauged IKEA.
In fact IKEA has been rated one of the 100 best places to work
for in general and for working mothers.
\_ And the worst part in all of this is that their huge size and
power forces their competitors to do the same in order to stay
in business, so now an entire sector of the economy is always
low paying with shitty benefits.
\_ Wal-Mart pays 50% of health insurance premiums. The industry
standard is 75%. I read that it would reduce Wal-Mart's profits
20% in order to jump to a more standard 75%. Can they afford to
do it? Of course. However, most companies aren't in business to
give all profits back to the employees. In fact, I really detest
Wal-Mart, but I can't think of anything unique about your points
#1, #2, or #3. Wal-Mart is evil for other reasons, including
the aggressive way it does business with suppliers and
competitors. I don't know enough about IKEA to say if it is
similar, but since it is an UltraMega corporation buying a lot of
cheap product from Asia it probably has skeletons in its closet, too.
\_ costco is holding its own against walmart, and it treats its
employees well:
http://csua.org/u/cut
\_ I like Costco in that it doesn't provide plastic bags and
that items only come in big sizes, both of which cut down
wasted material which is good for the environment. Of
course Costco does it for profit reasons, but I like its
side-effect.
\_ I find the big sizes wasteful. It's good if you have
a large family, though.
\_ purchase what you need and use up. eg. I don't touch
their huge boxes of snacks i rarely eat. But, water,
or fruit juice, I purchase plenty of.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/17/business/yourmoney/17costco.html?ex=1122696000&en=4cd5686772a804b6&ei=5070
\_ As a friend pointed out to me, Costco's return policy is
the best. You can basically return anything anytime.
If you don't like wal-mart, don't shop there. Tell people
not to shop there. This is how a healthy economy works.
Avoid government regulation as much as possible.
\_ Yeah, my friends said they could buy a computer at
Costco, and return it 1yr later saying that they
didn't like it. I think that's insane to allow that.
didn't like it. I think it's insane to allow that.
\_ It's now 6 months on computer and computer eq.
\_ Welcome to America, where the safety net blows so hard that you
need to work to survive -- which is why America is so productive.
Create a wealth gap (they earned it), it will keep 90% of America
working like dogs to either make ends meet or keep up with the
Jones's.
I heard in Canada you can be productive and also get a lot of
social services, and the wealth distribution is not as insane.
Commies.
\_ Yup, social services that includes cheap prescription drugs
that Americans pick up the tab for. If they had to pay the
real cost of medicine, their system would completely collapse
instead of merely teeter on the edge as it does now.
\_ Their economy is also mostly based on exporting raw
materials.
\_ Like beer?
\_ Canadian cost of living is very high - higher than US.
\_ You sure about that?
\_ Factoring in taxation, yes.
\_ Are you factoring in health care costs?
\_ For quality health care or Canadian health care?
\_ Depends. Do you want to survive an illness?
\_ http://www.finfacts.com/costofliving3.htm
http://www.2ontario.com/welcome/coca_701.asp
Canadian cities are lower than American.
Canadian cities are cheaper than American.
\_ PWNT!
\_ except for american goods!
\_ 'Comparative cost of 200 items' is not cost of living.
Canadians have less money to begin with because of the
taxes.
\_ You mean sales taxes? Because income taxes shouldn't
really be part of the "cost of living"; they affect
ability to gain income but not costs, seems like.
\_ Income taxes are absolutely a part of the cost
of living. How can you think it matters if the
money came out of my check before I saw it or I
had to pay extra for each item I purchase with
that same money? You're trolling, right? IHBT. |
| 2005/7/12-13 [Finance/Shopping, Consumer/CellPhone] UID:38547 Activity:nil |
7/11 It was only 2 years ago when I had a $29.99/month wireless plan with
300 any time minute and unlimited incoming and night&wknd. My contract
is up and I can't find a $29.99/month plan anymore. The cheapest I can
find is $39.99 plus $7 tax, which jacks up the price to almost
$50/month. Cell phones used to be cheap, what's going on???
\_ Last December I signed up for a T-mobile plan for two phones, five
lines, everything free for one year after rebates.
\_ Because cell phone companies know that after you have been hooked
into having a cell phone, you can no longer live without out. At
least your SO and friends will pressure you to always have one.
That's why companies were willing to offer these money-losing plans.
\_ Back then competition was hardcore and AT&T sold a lot of cheap
contracts forcing others to follow. With buyouts, there isn't as
much competition and those still in the biz have to make up the
money lost making those before mentioned acquisitions. The best
way to game the system now is to abuse the "friends and family"
plans that allow unlimited time within their company . |
| 2005/2/15-17 [Health, Finance/Shopping] UID:36175 Activity:nil |
2/15 To the people that pay for their own individual health insurance
plans, how much do you pay per month and how is your coverage?
I'm looking for as cheap a plan as possible, but one which
will still pay for well visits (regular checkups, etc.) This
plan that I have now doesn't pay shit for checkups, and I
want to find a new one.
\_ I pay $43/month for Blue Cross's $3500-deductible plan. I pay all
my health costs out of pocket, up to $3500/year; after that, they
pay for everything. It's not what you were asking for, but for me
it ends up being cheaper to pay for my own checkups and stuff than
to get a real plan that would cover them. |
| 2004/12/16-17 [Finance/Shopping] UID:35332 Activity:nil |
12/16 Cheaper than Fleshlight:
http://postarchives.entensity.net/040704/doityourself.wmv |
| 2004/6/6-7 [Finance/Shopping, Finance/Investment] UID:30638 Activity:insanely high |
6/5 70% tax unfair? My landlord inherited 21 tall rise buildings from
his dad in Westwood. He does nothing except collecting $ and hiring
other managers to take care of shit for him. There are plenty of
apartments in Westwood but they're all overpriced because of the
few elites who decide to artificially inflate the price. 70% tax
unfair for the superwealthy people? My ass. The rich is getting
richer and the poor is getting poorer, and that is a fact from
having unrestrained capitalism.
\_ Uhm, excuse me, sorry to interrupt your frothing, what what business
is it of yours that he is the ceo and owner of his own little real
estate empire? What the hell have *you* done to deserve a lower
rent or free access to this guy's or anyone else's wealth? The rich
are no richer than they ever were. The poor are better off now in
this country than they ever were in any country at any point in
history. If you don't want to make this guy even richer, then go
invest in owning something, stop paying rent which was always a
loser's game and take care of your own shit. How many apartments
have you or some other trashy renter destroyed because 'hey, it's
only a rental, fuck the landlord anyway, eh'? I'll bet you've left
at least one apartment in much worse shape than you got it and then
you bitched over every penny they took from your deposit to cover
the damages. Hey, I know, let's have super strict rent control. It
has worked soooo well in SF and Berkeley to make housing affordable
and available to the little people. Not.
\_ That's quite the rant. Are you saying that markets are perfect
and that they never need adjustment? That we should allow
the establishment of family fortunes that perpetuate a con-
centration of economic power into the hands of an ever-
wealthier elite?
\_ The Founders of this nation were in favor of *not*
allowing family fortunes to be broken up. They believed
that passing family wealth to a single child was better
than splitting it among them and destroying through
division. Modern families have been ignoring their
advice and splitting their wealth, thus in a few short
generations destroying it so I'm not at all concerned
about your Communism 120B Professor's propaganda about
"the establishment of family fortunes taht perpetuate a
concentration of economic power in the hands of an ever-
wealthier elite" because reality shows this to be
opposite to what you believe. Nice way to ignore just
about everything I said, btw. If you're just here to
be the new commie-troll, then congrats on your one
success. If you actually believe this crap, then you
can respond with more than phrases from the Little Red
book and one line, no content blowoffs that the people
responding to you are just ranting. I was talking about
rent control and the land lord/renter relationship and
all I got back was mindless off-topic propaganda. The
least you could do is provide on-topic mindless
propaganda if you want your troll to survive more than
the next hour this time or 30 seconds next time.
\_ IMHO(I'm not the guy above) the rental problem is
partly the fault of assholes who do not participate
in the market and so destroy it for everyone else.
By this I mean perspective tenants with too much money
and too little brains who don't bother to respond to
price at all and break the rationality of the market.
Just because someone can afford 2500/mo rent doesn't
mean an apartment is really *worth* that, and they
should keep shopping and spend the money they save on
something else. I do not propose any governement
based solution to this, but I believe that smashing
the Real Estate cartel would go a long way towards
fixing the problem. Again, I'm not proposing a
government solution, just proposing that individuals
refuse to use realtors' services when there is
*any* alternative, and that people use the Internet
as much as possible to replace them. This is already
happening. I guess the one government based solution
I might propose would be adding a course in the public
schools that teaches about home ownership and home
buying. It's fine to learn that stuff from your
parents if they happen to be responsible and own a home
but for the rest of us, learning in the real world
is a pain.
\_ advice #1, take your anti-depressant pill.
advice #2, get your facts straight:
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agcomm/writing/newsrls/3-31-04a.htm
http://money.cnn.com/2003/06/26/pf/taxes/wealth
http://www3.sympatico.ca/truegrowth/richgetricher.html
\_ *LAUGH* Read your own links. I stopped at the first after
it agreed with me about half way down page 1. And here's the
key phrase from *your* link,
"Why such relatively fast income gains for the rich? In a
word: education, one of the biggest income determinants.
Workers with more education simply earn more."
Which tells us that the only thing holding people back is
their own unwillingness to get a better education. Education
in this country is free or nearly so for the poor. There's
\_ Only if you're smart. Dumbasses like Bush have family
money, so they can go to increasingly expensive schools.
However, bright, but not genius, poor kids are getting
priced out. And there are a lot of other disadvantages
to being born poor, such as crappy public schools which
neither prepare you for nor steer you toward good 4-year
degree programs.
no excuse to not have at least a 4 year degree, yet if you
keep digging deeper, you'll find (no big shock) that the bulk
of the poorest of the poor didn't graduate highschool. Is
that the fault of the rich? I'm sure you'll make some
argument to that effect.
\_ So... you just want his money, because he has more than you?
Got it.
\_ Actually, what this guy is saying, is that since this rich
guy already has all these assets, he has an advantage in
sqeezing more money out of the rest of us. It's like M$,
market dominance leads to the ability to force people to pay
what you want them to pay. Taxation seems like a reasonable
way to me to keep wealth from turning into hereditary
aristocracies dominating all wealth in the US.
\_ bingo. there's clearly a point at which wealth goes beyond
wealth. Billionaire empires would grow faster than the
general economy and more and more power gets concentrated
into the hands of a few. There's no injustice in putting
huge taxes on inheritances and incomes that are beyond the
pale. These are huge sums at just the tiniest top fraction
of people.
\_ So, I ask again, at what point do you put that 100% tax
rate? How much is too much? How much are we 'allowed' to
own in your little communist utopia?
\_ What 100%? I merely defend the principle of progressive
income tax, inheritance taxes, etc. Call it whatever
you want, I don't give a shit.
\_ We already have all that. Now what? It obviously
isn't having the desired effect for you. When the
tax rates were even higher the rich were still, you
know, rich. The only way to make the highly driven
and educated *not* be rich is a 100% tax. All that
will do is drive them to another country with a
realistic tax rate that allows them to be rewarded
for being smarter than the rest of us.
\_ So it's either black or white with you? Either we're
free market capitalists or we're pinko commies? Way to
use your noodle, dude.
\_ I answer this above. When the tax rates were higher
than now the rich were still rich. If you want them
to not be rich the only way is to have a 100% rate.
So, yes, I'm not only 'using my noodle' but I have
correctly applied it to the communist point and
spent the 2 seconds thought required to figure out
the necessary tax rate to achieve the desired effect.
\_ well, no, but I really think I could have better use of money
than him. For example I could have bought 3 hybrid cars instead
of his stupid Hummer.
\_ Not true; the tax credit for rich Hummer owners is far more
lucrative than anything you'll get in your battery rocket.
\_ I really don't understand how this tax shelter still survives.
\_ I really think I could have better use of money than you.
Gimme all your money!
\_ I'll be glad to! Just forward your bank account information
to my business partner in Nigeria and I'll hook you up.
\_ They are priced fairly. If they were not, then they would go
unrented.
\_ ah, and if by raising the Bay Bridge toll to $10 and you
still get just as many bridge payers, then it is still
priced fairly? Some things are called inelastic supply and
and demand, my little cricket.
\_ Yes because there are other options to cross the bridge.
There is bart, car pooling, going around, or getting a
job that doesn't require bridge crossing. If the bridge
toll went to $10 and the same number of people continued
to cross it then yes it is still priced fairly. If
bridge use declines, as expected, but only slightly while
BART use goes up then yes it is still priced fairly.
\_ Housing isn't one of them. Move from Westwood and
rents will be cheaper. My gf lived in Westwood
because she liked it better than Mar Vista or Palms.
She paid more for the privilege. She could've lived
somewhere else cheaper.
\_ There is inelastic supply and elastic supply.
Over the long term, traffic patterns will definately change.
I already cringe the few times I have to cross the GGB.
I'd never go across it if they raised it to $10. -rollee
\_ You would cross it at $50 if there was something
worth more than $50 to you at the other end.
\_ Also if one or a few landlords own most of the land in an
area, monopoly or oligopoly effects prevent fair prices.
\_ This is not true in Westwood. If you think it is
overpriced then move to Santa Monica, Bel Air, Brentwood,
WeHo, Inglewood, or wherever you think rents are fair.
\_ Santa Monica is very very very expensive.
Bel Air is mostly houses owned by the rich, and they
hate students. Brentwood rarely rents out to students.
Marina Del Ray rent is like NYC rent. Actually, Westwood
is pretty cheap compared to these places I mentioned. Now,
Inglewood, that's a much more affordable place.
\_ Brentwood's not expensive if you know where to look.
Same with Santa Monica. -- ilyas
\_ Isn't Santa Monica still under rent control? --rollee
\_ Don't know. Santa Monica is like "Berkeley South"
in most respects. -- ilyas
Do you have a car? Have you driven to Santa Monica, say, -/
near the beach? Have you shopped around? Rent there is
$100-$200 more than Westwood for studios and 1 bdrms.
If SM were indeed cheaper, there would be more students
living there, but the fact of the matter is that SM
residents are mostly young fresh grad, 20-30 something. A
better parallel is that SM is more like Emeryville.
\_ So what you're saying is the Westwood rents are still quite
fair since they're cheaper than anything else around.
Thanks for clarifying.
\_ As an aside, one good argument I've heard for high taxes is that
money corrupts the democratic process. So keeping people from
amassing large amounts of wealth is important to provide each
person an equal voice. You may argue that the solution to the
problem of money in government could be solved by anti-corruption
laws, but history seems to show otherwise. For example, look at
all the corporations contributing hundreds of thousands of
dollars to throw parties for politicians at the convention in
Boston. I think Kennedey has a party with a price tag > $100K
paid for by companies with bills pending before his committee.
\_ There will always be enough money around to corrupt politics.
You can't fight human nature with tax laws. Having a super high
tax for the purpose of avoid political corruption by sucking the
life out of people seems silly to me. It's as if you're saying
most rich people do nothing with their wealth but buy politicians
which oh nevermind, it's just silly.
\_ I respectfully disagree. The few elites know how to allocate
wealth better than the poor. I'd rather have the rich people
control money so that they can contribute to the Ghetty Museum,
Metropolitan Opera, Gates Hall, Rockefeller Funding, Carneghie
Scholarships, and things. If you had allocated the same amount
of money to the poor, they'd squander it on alcohol, plasma TV
and football fields.
\_ yeah, but who'd build the plasma TV's, the football fields,
and the distillerys?
\_ You're all a bunch of fucking communists. Go find a time
machine and move to the Soviet Union.
\_ Haven't you guys followed the stock market and financial news?
Haven't you seen news about Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, LTCM bailout,
Stern's market timing, etc.? You don't think those are just
the tip of the iceberg? Wake up! They are raping your arse,
and you are saying "thank you! it's lovely! do it again!"
And the idiots above are saying, "Hey! don't worry, some day
you can get rich too and join us in screwing little people."
\_ It's the great American hesitation: wait, if I make it hard for
rich people to screw the little guy, then how will I screw the
little guy when I win the lottery? Keep them hoping, and
they'll do their best to stay out of trouble and maintain the
status quo. |
| 2004/4/28 [Finance/Shopping] UID:13433 Activity:moderate |
4/28 Has anyone purchased diamonds online? I just went through amazon's
configurator and a platinum setting was $1500 cheaper than a 14k or
18k gold setting. Seems really odd. Also about $2k cheaper than
bluenile.
\_ The setting itself shouldn't cost more than about $2K at most,
and that is with (little) diamonds on it. How can it be $1500
cheaper with the same center stone? Did one setting have
better/larger diamonds than the other? With no other stones the
setting will be < $1000, even in platinum. |
| 2004/3/19-21 [Finance/Shopping] UID:12762 Activity:nil |
3/19 What is a cheap and secure way to check my credit report?
\_ I think you are entitled to a free credit check every so often.
\_ you are entitled to a free check after you are denied
credit. also, sometimes some company will give away free
credit checks. usually the "deals" type sites will let
you know when that happens.
\_ once a year, I think...?
\_ where and how to get it? I often get marketing calls and
mails that offer to check my credit for $ >> 0.
\_ Well there is always 'freecreditreport.com' but they will also try
to sell you a service based on monitoring your credit erport. |
| 2004/2/18-24 [Finance/Investment, Finance/Shopping] UID:12295 Activity:nil |
2/18 Immediate position open for Sr. Systems Engineer (sysadmin)
at http://Walmart.com. If you meet the criteria, please e-mail me.
We've been getting weak resumes from our less-than-technical
recruiter. /csua/pub/jobs/walmart.com -- Marco
\_ Walmart? I'd rather be a janitor at MSFT.
\_ MSFT is far more evil than Walmart.
\_ awww...all that sysadmin talk's gone???
\_ maybe people should start a new thread when they think of some
cool entertaining flame war related to a job post. That will
be less likely to be censored and won't provide a disincentive
for alums to post jobs.
\_ jealousy.
\_ all that salary talk probably made it harder to find a
schmuc^H^H^H^H^H^Hqualified candidate.
\_ Do you know the general pay range for this? 60-80, 80-100, 100+?
\_ Our rates are very competitive. Conservatively, I expect a
qualified candidate would easily clear $80K. -- Marco
\_ How about employee discounts at Wal-Mart stores?
\_ More importantly, how about stock options?
\_ Is this really considered competitive for a senior person?
It looks average, or even a bit below, to me.
\_ It's quite low. Senior Sysadmins should clear 100k at any
company. Mid level people make into the 90s. 80k is
certainly not competitive. A few weeks ago I turned down
110k and another company I'm currently talking with will
be offering me 110k plus other benefits that will make it
worth it to give up my current 120k. At 80k I wouldn't
even consider applying or telling my friends about it if
they were senior level. Then again, so few sysadmins
survive more than 3-5 years that anyone who hits the 5 year
mark is considered senior even though they're only just
becoming useful at that point. It's a strange world we
live in. I've always wondered what happened to the ones
who didn't survive. I suppose they become developers?
--15+ years SA
\_ These numbers are too high for anywhere outside of
Silicon Valley. Also, 15+ yrs. is a huge amount of
experience and would increase your salary over most.
http://sageweb.sage.org/jobs/salary_survey
\_ If you need five years to become a good sysadmin
then you must be pretty dumb. Sysadmin is a support
function, if you design your netopology correctly
your day-to-day is basically just monitoring and
replacing defects. Once a month or so you'll need
to add in more storage or add in a couple more
machines. Again, if you designed your netop correctly
this is a piece of cake. Backups are relatively
easy nowadays with the right RAID. I mean seriously,
I sysadmin EDA software, which is a bitch, and it
didn't take me five years to "become useful."
\_ Sorry, you are just wrong. There are some things
you can only learn by working on a wide variety
of systems. Also, all the senior level jobs
include at least some management.
require at least some management.
-SA with 10 yrs exp
\_ I sense a dick-waving contest coming on...
\_ "They've got bigger dicks? BOMB THEM!" --GC
\_ Someone has to fix the cash registers.
\_ He said "conservatively" and "easily"
\_ Marco, thank you for posting this. No one should ever be
attacked for posting a job on the motd. I never understood
the suicidal "I'm too good for your stinking job!" attitude
so many motd idiots have towards alums posting jobs. This is
part of what is called "networking", you clods. It's *the* best
way to find a new or better job.
\_ I'm talking about a very well paying job doing real
systems work at one of the world's largest ecommerce
operations. If all of the stuff below disturbs you, by
all means, do not send me your resume. If you want a
good job; please let me know. -- Marco
\_ Some people have ethical problems with Walmart.
Some are just fucking with you, and some might want
the job.
\_ That's because sysadmins charge more than $6.80/hr.
\_ in the grand scheme of things when you consider which
companies stand to totally destroy the lower middle class
and lower class income brackets, Walmart is completely satanic
and threatens to lower the quality of life of millions
Americans directly and indirectly. You can say that that's
just the effect of the free market, and I would happen
to agree with you, but it does not make it suck less.
This brings up the question of if I were completely down
on my luck and I was offered a job with something that
I consider Evil(tm), such as Walmart/Microsoft/Halliburton/
Archer Daniels Richland or whatever that ethanol leech
behomoth corporation is named, if I would take it. I'm not
sure.
\_ If you are talking about Walmart squeezing out smaller
companies and offering the newly unemployed low-wage,
non-unionized jobs with few/no health benefits -- you have
a point, but please be more specific next time.
\_ Not that we don't appreciate the job posting, but which is more evil
Walmart or Microsoft?
\_ Is that a joke? I'd say that Microsoft is Evil, they way I might
say an American politician is evil, even though even the worst
American politician is better than Kim Jung Il, and even the
worst software company is better than Walmart.
\_ They're evil for different reasons. Plus as a sysadmin you'd
be more directly helping MS be evil.
\_ There are people who will argue whether the flames are blue or
green, when the point is that their arse is on fire.
\_ Walmart isn't Evil. They can't be evil. They sell Linux
and Linux isn't Evil is it?
\_ They sell Windows too.
\_ Walmart significantly increased the standard of living of the
(under)employed. According to
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/bg1713.cfm
the "poor" enjoys a lot of amenities in life. In fact they
would be considered middle class or even upper class in coutries
that you are so worried about taking our jobs away. What makes
this possible is the low prices introduced by stores like Walmart.
I don't have any love for walmart, but during the time I was
employed, I got everything from walmart and it kept my expense
down and finance afloat. Most of the people who trashes walmart
are those too rich to know the need of the low income Americans.
\_ that is interesting and i value your opinion, but could
you find more evidence of this not coming from an incredibly
right wing think tank like the Heritage Foundation? I happen
to be from one of those little towns that Wal-Mart has
indirectly completely devestated. You can probably
say "that's because of cheap labor available from China,
quit whining." and once again I agree but it still sucks.
I think there is a direct temporary short term benefit,
like as you said when you're poor it's pretty awesome and
convenient to be able to go to walmart and clothe yourself
almost completely for under $30, but in the long term
the presence of a walmart directly depresses or destroys
the possibility of any local retail jobs that have any
chance of offering a liveable wage. Maybe everyone in
America needs to retrain immediately for jobs in the
New Economy. I have not read of any evidence that
the current or even past presidential administrations
actively care or are offering any leadership in this area.
\_ Bush's job training program is "be a Halliburton
contractor in the front lines in Iraq so when you
get shot and killed we can NOT REPORT it because
you were a civilian non existent contractor but
since you don't go in the 'troops killed' column,
we don't have to tell anyone and the american
public doesn't and won't care.
[reformatted - formatd]
\_ Bosnia, Somalia, Haiti, etc weren't exactly great job
creation plans. People die in war zones, shit happens.
They get hazard pay.
Also to endlessly argue that the very poor in this country
are much better off than say arsenic poisoned homeless
dudes in Bangladesh or entire generations of people who
live in garbage dumps in Manila and never see solid land
is a circular argument, it's not going to win me over.
\_ Whatever you think of its source and author, you should
consider its facts and arguments in their own rights.
The data that article cites comes from US govt reports.
See the article and its references. And let me just quote
"The average poor American has more living space than the
average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens,
and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are
to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those
classified as poor.)"
\_ Living space != standard of living. If it did, we'd be
sending food and blankets to the Japanese.
\_ It's part of the whole picture. And the average
japanese are miserable in that regard.
\_ does living space automatically equate to a higher
standard of living? Mongolian steppe herders
probably have spaces the size of Delaware all to
themselves.
\_ see above, and your comparison is not valid. You know
how much tent space per person they have?
\_ I don't think living density in this country is going to
approach japanese or european or southeast asian or
chinese levels any time soon unless we suddenly run
out of oil, we have pretty hard to overcome urban
sprawl problems, that ironically walmart has
exploited very successfully.
\_ Japan: 127,214,499 ppl in 374,744 sq km.
USA: 290,342,554 ppl in 9,158,960 sq km
Or roughly half as many people in 1/24th the space.
The US will never achieve this level of pop density.
\_ does the above include (or exclude?) areas
of the US you're not going to live in, like
national parks or volcanoes or the sides
of mountains or Houston?
\_ Of course, as well as huge chunks of Hokkaido
and numerous inhospitable rocks in dispute with
Russia.
\_ None may enter the sacred forests of Hokkaido,
reknowned for their countless soap factories.
\_ So why support a company that makes billions by rapidly
furthering us towards a great equalization of global poor people
by lowering the standard of living of poor people in the US to
India's poor? Is that how globalization is supposed to work?
Great! Actually no one is really saying how much they
love Walmart, and I bet they just pave over all the poor
people at Marco's work and he has little concept of it and
is probably a nice guy. I know a couple of people who work
at Chevron-Texaco and they had absolutely NO IDEA why people
would keep 'blocking the main road to campus' or protesting
or giving them mean looks when they went to work in San Ramon.
I mean, come on, they have college degrees from UCB but
they choose to be really stupid. I answer their evite
party invites with NO BLOOD FOR OIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
\_ Well, Walmart sells cheap stuff.
\_ Now you see many of the so called "liberals" are haters.
\_ what is this "so called" stuff? I AM a liberal
and damn fucking proud of it, ok not proud enough
to sign my name today, check back later. I notice
none of today's posters are sufficiently walmart
loving or frothing at the mouth, what happened to
free market guy? or free republic guy? on vacation?
\_ And what about Chicom troll? You'd think cct would have
a (painfully incoherent) opinion about all of this.
\_ Has it occurred to you that Marco's giving a
"conservative estimate," such that he sets an
appropriate expectation, and such that he isn't
brokering a salary negotiation? I'm pretty sure
http://Walmart.com will pay market for you superstars out
there. --chris
\_ I said "average" or "below". |
| 2004/2/10 [Finance/Shopping, Computer/SW/SpamAssassin] UID:12185 Activity:kinda low |
2/9 I'm planning to go to New Zealand at the very end of December. Can
you recommend a local (Bay Area) travel agency?
\_ Why bother with a travel agency? I've never understood this.
\_ They can often get you better fares since they have
allocations of cheap tickets long after you cannot buy them
retail.
\_ Good luck getting cheap tickets to new zealand for the
end of December.
\_ I got good prices from Air New Zealand's web site for my Nov.
trip. Dec is more, but you should at least try there and make
sure you can't get the ticks there cheaper than through an agent.
But they do kinda spam the address I gave them. -crebbs
\_ ANZ has a $999 roundtrip special running until Nov. to celebrate
adding SFO to their route, but no specials after that. I'll
keep an eye on them, though, thank you. --OP
\_ Don't forget to bring your ozone layer.
\_ At least I don't have to bring my own Hobbit clothing:
link:csua.org/u/5xe (jpg) |
| 2004/1/6 [Recreation/Food, Finance/Shopping] UID:11688 Activity:very high |
1/6 How much can i expect to pay for a cheap lunch in london?
\- Ask for Cheep Bubble and Squeak --psb
\_ Cheap: 3-4 pounds. Decent (primarily Indian or Kebab): 5-10
pounds. Or you can grab a sandwich for about 1-3. There's
some pretty mangy food there, though. -John
\_ i don't know why this was overwritten, but thank you thank you
thank you! my faith in the motd is restored!
\_ What? WTF? Walk into a cheap looking place and read the menu.
\_ dumbass, I'm not in london right now. That's why I'm asking.
I need to estimate my travel expenses for a trip in the *future*
not the present.
\_ Useless. You can't estimate to the penny what it will cost
you. It will *always* be higher than you expect. It's a
first world nation. Prices will be similar.
\_ head...hurting...idiocy...aghck!!!
\_ Sorry if it was so hard to figure out that a McNugget
here will cost about the same as a McNugget there.
\_ I think McNuggets are a little more expensive there
because of how the dollar has been sliding.
\_ If you know where to go, about 3 quid.
\_ thanks, but since I have no idea where to go, can I assume 5-10
per meal? I'm looking for a ballpark estimate assuming both
frugality and ignorance.
\_ Go to http://timeout.com Yes, you'll have to register for
a freebie trial, but trust me, this is _the_ mag to have
access to.
\_ so why are you making a trip to london when you are tight on money?
\_ jesus fucking christ you people are amazing. I'm not tight on
money, and I'm not paying for it anyway. I just have to sketch
out a rough budget for the trip, and like to save money on
general principle.
\_ London on the whole is terriffically expensive. For
good food you generally can't go wrong with Indian or
Bangladeshi--you'll want to hit Brick Lane in any case.
There is _no_ decent food in the City/financial area. -John |
| 2004/1/5 [Finance/Shopping] UID:11660 Activity:nil |
1/4 I'm moving. I need a lot of bubble wrap. I live in the South Bay.
Can anyone recommend an economical local source for buying packing
materials in quantity?
\_ I just use old newspaper.
\_ UHaul...it's kinda expensive to buy a lot, but at least you'll
now know a guaranteed place to get some.
\_ ebay? old newspaper as the person above suggested?
Old recycled papers? UPS store? Office Depot? Office Max?
\_ uline or u-line. I remember it was definitely cheaper than uhaul. |
| 2003/11/1-2 [Reference/RealEstate, Finance/Shopping, Politics/Foreign/Asia/Others] UID:10896 Activity:kinda low |
10/31 Oh great. A Vietnamese man just bought my building and has now
cancelled the property management firm, the cleaning contract,
and the pest control contract. He claims he can do it all
himself. There are 19 units and over 30 people in the building.
This is stupid - 5 years ago they finally beat back the roach
invasion and now this chump is going to let them back in?
Why is he so cheap?!
\_ why do you still live in the Bay Area?!
\_ Where do you live? And who do you work for?
\_ Vietnamese people are always cheap. They are your worst nightmare
as your employee (stupid) and your landlord (cheap). They're
also your worst roomates (dirty). I'm speaking from personal
experience. Do yourself a favor and move out ASAP.
\_ I've got 7 months left on my lease. ARGH!
\_ You can break lease and move now or wait and pay double in
7 months after the economy improves. Or you could kill him.
\_ um, how are we vietnamese dirty?
\_ heh, you'll accept stupid and cheap but dirty isn't ok?
\_ ha that's pretty funny. Anyways, how come Vietcongese
bashing is ok but black/white/jews bashing gets trashed
by motd custodians? Is it because our custodians don't
like Viets as well?
\_ No, b/w/j bashing mostly causes the flamefest intended
by the trolls posting. When that section of the motd
grows to 5 pages, it gets deleted.
\_ Edit it yourself. I like Vietnamese so well I married
one, I just don't see the need to censor idiots. It
is better to let the world see how stupid the bigots
really are.
\_ sheesh, what a bigot!
\_ Property management firms ... snicker. Those are usually
run by lazy, incompetent know-nothing do-nothing english major
suit-wearing money-grabbers who think they are entitled to a
high fee without providing any service. Of course he should
fire them and cut some fat. Helps the economy, if nothing else.
\_ I have yet to see an exception to the rule you state.
\_ personal experience: management company did what was needed to
be done at my apartment complex. it was very industrial and
there was no personal touch to anything but stuff got done. i
moved from there to another complex run by the one-owner-guy and
it was a big fucking filthy broken mess and a fire hazard to
boot! i'll take a prop. management firm anyday.
\_ I think you mean "industrious."
\_ no, I mean industrial. exactly like I said. thanks.
\_ At least your landlord wasn't the Lucky Reddy dude who bring
indian peasant girls to the country to serve as sex slave
and to help clean the apartment buildings.
\_ If you're not an Indian peasant girl what do you care? |
| 2003/8/19-22 [Finance/Shopping] UID:29386 Activity:low |
8/18 hi are you going to burning man? would you like to buy
a bunch of talkabout radios from me for very very cheap?
let me know. - danh
\_ can't you buy new walkie talkies at radio shack now for about five
bucks? are you offering them cheaper than that?
\_ I didn't see your mom for sale at radio shack this time
\_ Ok Ill buy them. |
| 2003/1/20-21 [Finance/Shopping, Finance/Investment] UID:27157 Activity:high |
1/20 I've seen on a PBS program (forgot which) which talks about the
netherlands being a "post-consumerism" society. Are there other
examples of such countries? New Zealand? Thanks.
\_ i don't think whole nations are "post-consumer" but there are
sub-groups in some of them.
http://uk.geocities.com/balihar_sanghera/Globaltersoc.html
\_ What exactly does "post consumerism" mean? They don't eat or have
any needs any more? Have they invented the star trek food maker
thingy and didn't tell the rest of us? What?
\_ It means living to satisfy our needs, and not our wants.
You don't NEED a SUV, DVD player, Sony playstation, or a new
computer every 18 months. So why do you buy it? Deriving
satisfaction in life based how much crap you can buy with money
is meaningless and not sustainable. In one word: Simplicity.
\_ So you mean to tell us that people in the netherlands are at
one with the land and don't own stuff? Okey dokey. Whatever.
As someone who owns almost no consumer junk myself, I think
you're a wack. There's nothing wrong with all those things if
you can afford it. Let's just shut down the whole fucking
economy and eat only after a creature or plant has died a
simple natural death. While we're at it let's have 80%
unemployment when there's nothing for most to do and no
incentive for the other 20%. This sounds just great! Where's
Walden Pond when you need it?
\_ You need a cactus up your ass.
\_ Sounds like a communist society.
\_ actually, sounds more like poor. but that's not so
different from communism, i guess. |
| 2002/9/13-14 [Finance/Shopping, Finance/Investment] UID:25879 Activity:nil |
9/13 http://www.economist.com/finance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1325469 sobering thoughts. prepare thyself accordingly. \_ They don't go nearly far enough into the alarming consequences of deflation. Basically deflation kills most demand. Everyone wants to hold onto his cash so he can get what he wants for less. |
| 2002/7/5 [Industry/Jobs, Finance/Shopping] UID:25283 Activity:very high |
7/4 Just graduated, and the money situation is ok. So I'm thinking of
just taking a little time off and relaxing at the folks house
for a little while or until the economy picks up (not that I have a
choice). (related to below post) What are some good (possibly open-
source) projects I can dedicate some time to? And what are the best
ways to get started on these kinds of things?
\_ Art is good. Pick a medium and take a class. If you really
like it you'll get better. Pick a form which takes a lot
of time and organizational skill to thin your competition.
Or enslave yourself to my film crew for extra cool points.
We always have openings, and it's not pr0n. -brain
\_ Mistake. Any "holes" in your resume will raise questions when you
finally do decide to join the economy. And btw, it might be years
before it picks up again. Say hi to yermom for me. (sorry, I had
to take the cheap shot, it was so there).
\_ is saying, "I spent the last year working on open source
projects" that bad?
\_ Depends on how you say it. You make it seem that you took
the time off for a "good" reason. If it's shareware, make
it something that has a public release. If it's 3-6 months
off, it's acceptable to say you took time off to celebrate
graduation.
\_ I'm doing this (sort-of) right now; working on a part-time
contract, setting up our apartment. The hardest thing is to
get used to relaxing and not feeling guilty about not working
full-time. I suggest taking some certification exams, since it's
\_ i did have to explain where i was for a year. I said, "Peace corps."
even "Missionary work in Sierra Leon" works.
probably nice weather outside to go prepare with a book in the
park. Get a ton of exercise, tank up on sun (unless you're in SF),
and buy an old laptop to go work away from home on stuff you feel
like--otherwise you just end up sitting around at home and pr0n-
hosing. -John
\_ i did have to explain where i was for a year. I said,
"Peace corps." even "Missionary work in Sierra Leon" works. |
| 2002/6/14 [Finance/Shopping] UID:25101 Activity:nil |
6/13 Mailing lotsa books to France (10 pounds?). Is USPS cheaper or UPS?
\- bookrate is relly cheap! ... at least USA. You should pack the
stuff pretty well however. For international stuff, I belive
printer matter is also cheaper than letter type stuff. I once
sent an associate in london a poster and it would have been a hell
of a lot more expensive if i had put a letter in the "london tube"
\_ why send them 10 lbs of books when you can send them 10 lbs of
plastique?
\_ there must be something with a better boom/weight ratio than
plastique these days. |
| 2002/3/27 [Finance/Shopping] UID:24242 Activity:nil |
3/26 Wanna buy an island?
http://www.vladi-private-islands.de/sales_islands/sites/pricelist.html
\_ there are much cheaper island buying options, depending on where
you are. i know a retired electrician who owns an island in
alaska, and i'm pretty sure he's not that rich.
\_ Well, the islands in Nova Scotia seem to be pretty cheap. The
cheapest one is $19,000 US. That's about the price of a car.
\_ Thanks for clarifying.
\_ What would you do with a $19K island in Nova Scotia?
\_ How many hours per day is it above sea level? |
| 2002/2/25 [Finance/Shopping] UID:23967 Activity:high |
2/25 Where's the best place to get bulk vitamins? I need some calcium
and iron supplements and don't want to spend a lot - soda gal
\_ Adjust your diet. It's easier and cheaper.
\_ Women need extra calcium and iron supplements because of their
monthly..."grumpiness." Actually, most athletes should take
supplements as well, or eat a whole lot of everything.
Try Costco for the vitamins.
\_ Grumpiness? Only in this country. It's cultural. And it's
ok to call it a 'period'.
\_ Agreed. The supplement stuff in Costco seems pretty cheap
compared to other stores.
\_ Trader Joe's has good prices if you're not looking for anything
overly exotic.
\_ definitely second tj for cheap vitamins.
\_ Eat dirt and rocks.
\_ And suck nails. |
| 2002/2/2 [Finance/Shopping] UID:23752 Activity:low |
2/1 Where can I get a used stereo receiver? Craigslist seems to be a poor
choice on this one. Anyone willing to sell me theirs cheap?
\_ email?
\_ how cheap?
\_ $25 ? |
| 2002/1/18-21 [Finance/Shopping] UID:23599 Activity:moderate |
1/18 Any recommendations for another product like
http://www.spiderplant.com/hlt/index.html a cheap flexible
room temperature monitor? They aren't taking more orders. thanks.
\_ Me too, I need something similar to HLT. -- Marco
\_ What do you want it for? If it's for a machine room then your
routers might already have a temp. value you can retrieve with
SNMP. |
| 2001/8/13 [Finance/Shopping] UID:22089 Activity:kinda low |
8/13 What's the cheapest long distance carrier to use, if you know
exactly who you are going to call long distance?
\_ the one with the cheapest rates (and monthly) for that person. -duh |
| 2001/7/2 [Finance/Shopping] UID:21699 Activity:very high |
7/2 From http://moneycentral.msn.com/articles/smartbuy/basics/6600.asp?package=moneymonday "Alfred and Trish moved from Queens, N.Y., to San Diego this year. Housing is slightly cheaper, but property crime is higher." Isn't Queens, NY a very bad neighborhood? I can't imagine San Diego being worse than Queens. \_ Queens is very ethnic. There are, of course, parts that are bad, but for the most part, it's not. \_ tons of people live in queens. that's like saying "the bay area is a very bad neighborhood" \_ I see. I've never been to Queens. Based on the impression I got from movies I thought it was just a small district in NY with many bad people. \_ nyc has 5 buroughs. each burough has nearly a million people, and in the case of brooklyn, nearly 2 million people. so statements like "all queens is bad" is really broad, there are hundreds of different neighborhoods in nyc, some bad, some good. neighborhoods you only know about from rap songs are probably bad. \_ Depends on where in San Diego they moved. If housing is slightly cheaper then it's not one of the best parts of San Diego. --dim \_ New York city has gotten significantly better in the last five or ten years, and this goes for both Manhattan and the other burroughs. \_ Thanks to the NYPD's shoot first, ask questions later policy \_ Isn' it plunge first, ask questions later? \_ No problem with that. Population control! \_ anyway it's better than a situation where the police tell someone to stop or they'll shoot, the person doesn't, and the police don't shoot. \_ you can really hurt a guy with a pager if you put your mind to it \_ Actually, the improvements predate Guliani's arrival in office, which is when the police started to get really bad. \_ I'm sure it has to do with the good economy. LA didn't have near as many gang problems for many years, too, but now it's getting worse as the economy is slowing. --dim |
| 2001/5/10 [Finance/Shopping] UID:21226 Activity:kinda low |
5/9 Anyone have any opinions on video projectors? I need
to buy one and cost is an issue. I've only ever used the
fancy, schamncy ones that cost over $5k. In particular,
are the cheaper Infocus models any good? -payam
\_ used a cheaper-end Infocus machine to display the Boston Aquarium cam
on the wall of our office for a while: worked fine, easy to set up,
power cable pretty much interchangeable with that of any number of
office machines-- doesn't handle resolutions above 800x600 too well |
| 2001/2/14-15 [Finance/Shopping, Finance/Investment] UID:20596 Activity:insanely high |
2/14 Got no date? Want something more than another valentines day
staring at source code? Come see: "Hungry for Profit"
Wednesday, February 14th @ 7pm 210 Wheeler
come and learn how
* U$ agricultural interests abroad destroy 3rd world nat'l economies
* Agribusiness perpetuates environmental degredation
* Imperialism keeps millions of people on the brink of starvation to
benefit the First World
\_ Going vegan can help solve the problem.
http://www.vegan.org/about_vegan_environment.html (especially the
last section)
\_ Uh, how? Vegans eat vegitables that require farming which
contributes to environmental collapse. You should switch
to starvation and dieting like super models.
\_ Raising cattle or poultry also requires farming and
environmental collapse. For every calorie of meat
you produce requires you to put in 1000 calories to
feed and raise that animal.
\_ Glad I'm a vegitarian and not contributing to the
\_ Commie alert
collapse of the "environment". Not that I give a
shit about it.
\_ It doesn't solve the problem completely but it helps solve
the problem by slowing down collapse.
\_ All this collapse is bullshit. You sound like Al Bore
or Jimmy Carter. Americans should not be limited to small
dreams. BTW, I'm vegitarian by choice, and not because
I'm concerned with the "planet" and the "future".
\_ Typical sodan thinking. Well, you just keep that
to yourself. Most people do care about the "future".
By the way, if you're really concerned about your
health (and you probably aren't because you're
not concerned about other things as well) you
would add a little meat in your diet since meat
contains certain protiens you can't find in other
protien alternatives.
\_ My people have been vegitarian for thousands
of years and they have been living just fine.
The average lifespan in my family is ~ 90
yrs all disease free. I have the same diet
they do, I'm not going to change because some
idiot motd poster things that meat is good
for you. If you read modern medical science
you will find that any animal fat is bad for
your health. The lower on the food chain you
go for your nurishment, the better.
And all this "future" bs, we've got to save
the planet for the "future", we've got to
cut back on modern civilization so that the
"future generations" can enjoy the "planet"
is total crap. You basically want to restrict
technological progress because you can't
keep up and you want to condemn future
generations to live in an undeveloped
society.
\_ there are 9 amino acids humans can't produce.
all of them are found in the plant world.
\_ Maybe you'll learn to spell protein sometime soon.
\_ PLUZ! A world economy reduces the chance of world wars, as people
are too busy trying to exploit each other. I'd rather have that
than the holocaust, combat casualties, biological weapons and etc.
\_ Typical Left-Wing Mythology. Let's all become communists like
in CCCP and Cuba and live in dirty little hovels shivering in
the cold without the benefit of modern civilization. Idiot.
\_ not to argue pro-communism, but imperialist policies do extract
an unequal exchange of values from third-world countries, via
their technological and political leverage, thus keeping them
much poorer than they would otherwise be. a Buick regal should
not equal 10,000,000 bananas but it often does.
\_ This is incorrect. Foreign investment NEVER hurts a country.
\_ Commie alert - I dont think Marx could have said it
better himself.
\_ why would anyone that poor want to buy a buick regal?
\_ why would anyone want to buy a buick regal?
\_ Do you have one? It is not too expensive and
is a reasonably reliable car.
\_ the real reason 3rd world countries are poor is because they
breed too much. they're already poor, then have 10 kids who
end up with 1/10 of what their parents had, except for the
few who make it to the very top. you cannot build wealth across
generations if you're having that many kids, it's quite simple.
growth of gdp has to exceed population growth for net per capita
gain. but instead we have whole nations in africa where unicef
aid is the primary economic force and they no longer even know
how to provide for themselves, yet still have 10 kids. it's like
feeding raccoons in your backyard, soon there are twice as many
and they completely depend on you.
\_ This is the problem that they have in India. The birth
rate of the poorest people is about 5-10 per family.
A good way to help these people has yet to be devised,
as they reject education (its free) or better living
conditions.
When the government clean up the slums and build good
housing for slum dwellers, they ended up selling the
free housing and returning to the slums. When the gov.
offered free education for the poorest children, few
showed up, prefering to engage in menial labor.
First world consumption has nothing to do with the
poverty these people face. Thier misery is thier own
doing.
\_ I believe in Rush!
\_ That's why we should support commie China's birth control
policies.
\_ No. I don't think that it should be forced. But
people ought to understand that a high birth rate
is unsustainable and voluntarily stop.
It is the part about making people understand that
is difficult.
\_ even if they understand, they won't voluntarily
stop. it's like traffic congestion. we all
understand that if most of us employed alternative
transportation the roads would be clearer, so what.
why should i do it if you don't.
\_ alternative transportation? you mean RIDE
BIKE?!? I live +30 miles from work. I can't
possibly RIDE BIKE! Yeah I could take a bus,
but I just have to change 5 times and it only
takes 5 hours. What about the train you say?
Well for $6.50 a day, its cheaper and faster
to drive.
If well planned alternative transport was
available I would take it. I have in the past.
I took BART from Fremont every day for the
four years I was at Cal.
\_ yes but that's my point; using other transport
is a disadvantage to you so you won't do it
unless you have to, or unless it's only
slightly less convenient than cars. thus
the analogy to people stopping having kids.
which deprives them of their instinctive
reproduction need and...oh forget it. besides
no one forced you to live +30 mi from work.
\_ I can't afford to pay $1800-$2400 in rent
every month after the IRS gets its unfair
share.
The BART was farily less convenient than
driving, but I still did it because it
was reasonably priced and moderately well
planned and managed. The trains and buses
are no where near that well run. If they
were I would take them.
\_ Driving costs ~$0.32 per mile on average when
maintenance, depreciation, etc. are taken
into account. That's how much you can deduct
on the tax form for driving your own car for
business purpose.
\_ I don't think the IRS will take too kindly
to my deducting $0.32 for each mile driven.
Anyway, I've tried public transport to work,
it just doesn't work for me and I believe
that it doesn't for most people, that's
why buses and trains go empty.
Planning is key to public transport and
that is sorely lacking in CA.
\_ yeah, maybe we can come up with a darwinist birth policy.
we say a kid is worth like $200k. for each kid you want,
you have to pay the gov't that amount. problem solved.
\_ Uhhh.. pay the government!? Why? Why not just stop
(in this country) providing monetary incentives for
poor families to have more children? Why not instead
provide no monies at all to support the kids, and
if they have them and can't care for them, offer them
to the families who can afford them that want kids.
\_ hey, this is the motd, we already know all that stuff!
\_ come anyway. it's a decent film.
\_ and these people are the same ones who voted for
Clinton & Gore - gimme a break
\_ yeah right, russia had their whole nation starve with communisism
and their food lines.
\_ Don't argue... If it were up to me I would send the whole
american communist lot to China or Russia for an educational
two-week tour of the likely results of the hegemony of the
proletariat. -- born in russia
\_ Just because you extremist dumb fucks screwed things up,
doesn't mean others will.
\_ You don't understand. Property redistribution is wrong.
The more you go with it, the worse off you will be.
Don't give me your misguided relativism. Communism is
a bad idea. Always was, always will be. It's a good thing
many people can actually learn from Russia's tragic
mistakes, even if overfed dumb fucks like you can't.
\_ Sorry. Liberals != Communists. I know it may be
hard for little russian ex-commies to understand
that. The main reason soviet union failed is
due to having a command economy rather than a
market economy. Nobody is suggesting that
we turn the economy into a command economy.
\_ You don't want to be lecturing a 'little russian
ex-commie' on why CCCP failed. The reason CCCP
failed is because 'property redistribution' ==
invitation to loot the wealthy (i.e. productive)
members of society. No society succeeds with such
an economic plan. A command economy was an after-
thought, a temporary way to keep a dead body in
motion for a few more years.
\_ Like I said, you don't have to
push things to extremes. A little
"redistribution of wealth" like the
progressive tax and intelligent use of
welfare to help people with difficulties
get back up is actually good for the
economy. Of course you do not want to
constantly redistributing wealth such that
there no longer is any incentive to work.
\_ taxation is a violation of my freedom.
The founding fathers knew this and it
was banned until early this century.
Progressive taxation which takes money
from someone who rightfully owns it
and gives it to someone who doesn't
is a crime. It should be outlawed.
Its my damn money and you've no right
to it. If I choose to help poor people
that is my right. If I don't that is
my right too. You should not take it
from me because you think that it is
right.
\_ Some people here in the west are just too dumb
to understand how bad the living conditions are
in a communist society. They think that the
everyone is equal because everyone is a poor
peon is a good thing.
\_ Is it free? I don't want to have to pay to get brainwashed, lied
to, mislead, and only told one side of a very complex story. Also,
what are my odds of picking up a real hottie commie chick and
getting some action after the flick? If I show the proper signs of
being brainwashed do my chances go up? Are there any hottie commie
chicks or are they all hairy armpit club wielding Berkeley leftists?
\_ hottie commie chicks is an oxymoron. There was a saying in
communist russian: What do you call a pretty girl in Russia?
A tourist.
\_ Nah. I remember this very pretty russian gymnast who,
after coming to the US, became fat and ugly.
\_ maybe if your idea of pretty is "prepubescent anorexic." |
| 2000/12/22-23 [Finance/Shopping] UID:20157 Activity:kinda low |
12/21 I need to buy a new bed & mattress, but I'm a poor grad student.
What's a place to buy a decent, cheap set in/near Berkeley?
\_ futon?
\_ Discount Depot on San Pablo near University. They were the cheapest
place for beds/mattresses/futons when I was an undergrad. --chris
\_ Purchased twice(futons) from them over 8 year period in late 80s
early 90s. Dunno about now, but they were good/fine then.Small
delivery guy with compact toyota delivered the queen/full frame
and futon himself up 3 floors for $10 fee. |
| 2000/12/21-23 [Finance/Shopping] UID:20152 Activity:moderate |
12/20 Has anyone ever worked at a McDonalds? Do the eggs in the egg
McMuffins come precooked/preshaped, or do they use real eggs?
\_ They are real eggs, you crack them into these metal rings. -tom
\_ Are you saying this from experience?
\_ yes. Though I usually worked closing. -tom
\_ And I always thought they were extruded like
plastic.
\_ I thought they were spun and grown into
ingots (like silicon wafers) and then
pulled out and sliced up.
\_ On a similar note, I've heard rumors that Jack In The Box tacos
aren't actually made of beef... rather, some cheap soy substitute.
I asked for a nutrition fact sheet type thing last time I was
there but just got blank stares. I'd really like to know since I
don't like beef but really like those tacos. Truth or urban
legend?
\_ I've also heard that KFC chickens are machine grown and
headless and that people wake up in ice baths with their
kidneys removed. Ah..the freshman urban legend forwards.
\_ KFC is made of soilant green! Soilant green is made of
HUMANS!!!
\_ Tom finally weighs in on something he knows about--
MacDonalds and flowers!
\_ Don't knock flowers. That's important.
\_ absolutely! without flowers I wouldn't have
a cheap, convenient, and disposable gift to
give the cheap easy women I date. |
| 2000/11/23-28 [Computer/Networking, Finance/Shopping] UID:19904 Activity:moderate |
11/23 Can somebody recommend a cheap wireless phone plan for $20 or less
a month? I need it for only emergency only. And it must come with
a phone.
\_ Work gave me a cell. They pay everything. It sucks. -- 24x7 slave.
\_ Ha ha. You accepted the cell phone from work? What
did they have on you? Did you kill or rape a co-worker?
Or are you too stupid to live?
\_ 6 figures and they never call me. I didn't "accept". It's
part of the job. I could go with no cell and get half or
nothing. And like John I use it as my free personal phone.
\_ 6 figures and no cell. The are afraid to call me. You
need to be more important.
\_ That doesn't mean much if you don't have a phone.
\_ They are scared to ask me to carry a pager or
a cell phone. Very scared.
\_ work gave me a cell. people from work rarely ever
call me on it. it's great!
\_ Last time work gave me a cell phone I regularly racked
up > $400 phone bills on it. "Fringe benefit." -John
\_ Ooh, y'all six-figure niggas by the name of jigga.
--hater
\_ Consider prepaid minutes + cheap phone. No monthly charge.
\_ The cheapest PacBell plan is somewhere around this price... I think
it might be $25/mo. and usually comes with a phone.
\_ SprintPCS has a $20/month plan for 20 minutes. I used to remember
there being a $15/month plan for 30 minutes. Oh well.
\_ http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/htbin/rfc/rfc2549.html
\_ http://www.csaa.com/memberservices/cell-phones.asp |
| 2000/6/8-9 [Finance/Shopping] UID:18433 Activity:high |
4/69 How does one get free access to UCB libraries without joining the alumni
association? -jeffwong
\_ There is no way, you cheap school-spirit-less person.
\_ Don't you mean cheap-school spirit-less person?
\_ the alumni association is cheaper than the alternative. there
is no alternative that is both free and legal. |
| 2000/4/24-26 [Finance/Shopping] UID:18099 Activity:moderate |
4/24 Does anyone have a copy of Half-life they might be willing to
sell me for cheap? Or Planescape: Torment? - seidl
\_ Warez.
\_ Looking for not warez. Ebay prices just seem a little too
random right now. - seidl
\_ If no one has used ones, seidle, someone needs to go to a
\_ If no one has used ones, seidl, someone needs to go to a
computer show and buy you a new one for cheap
\_ Which computer shows have half-life for cheap? Living in
colorado makes many shows a little far to go to. - seidl |
| 2000/2/3-4 [Finance/Investment, Finance/Banking, Finance/Shopping] UID:17416 Activity:high |
2/2 According to McCain, he's for Social Security and "paying down
the debt." When we pay down the debt, who benefits the most?
IN other words, who holds certificates to our nation's debt?
\_ The CHILDREN. Won't somebody *please* think of the CHILDREN!
\- er, i think you are misunderstanding what this means. the
alternative to paying down the debt isnt defaulting. paying down the
debt really means you will slow down the rate of issuing new debt.
you have to finance deficit spending either by borrowing [in which
case the govt competes with private industry for savings, raising the
cost of money, i.e. the itnerest rate] or the govt can print money, an
option not open to a private individual/firm, but not totally free
for the govt either, since paying back with inflated dollars is kind
of a partial defualt. quite a bit of US treasure instruments are
held by foreigners, btw. --psb
\_ I think you are misunderstanding the question. The person asked
who will benefit by the paying off of the National debt, not
what effect it would have upon any (hypothetical) future deficit
spending.
\_ #1 holder of US Treasury products is Americans. Japanese #2.
I think Chinese have recently started buying huge
amounts.
\_ Why do you think that the Gov't's lenders want to be paid
back instead of continuing to be paid interest? And remember,
this is money they already gave the Gov't. Right now I think
$200G goes to paying iterest on our debt. How much does our
military cost? --PeterM
\_ My point (admittedly unclear) about the military
is that the interest on our debt could go a long
way to paying the military budget. --PeterM
\- if you look at debt/GDP for the us, the number isnt too bad.
the problem here isnt high debt, but extrmemely low private
savings rate. --psb
\_ You want to dump the military? Which foreign language
would you prefer to learn to talk to your new leaders?
\_ Japanese! :-)
\_ right. in japan, you'd be lucky to find people to
openly express themselves in public conversation like
this.
\_ thats why I like it. And no more stupid
"gay marriages" either.
\_ If you want to live in a cultural clam shell, go
there. No reason to destroy this country when
Japan is only a plane flight away. To each his
own.
\_ No tipping! Schoolgirl panties in vending
machines! It's a utopia!
\_ And blue dots on all the pr0n.
\_ Blue Dots are Artistic, or something. --oj
\_ Pubic hair is banned. Rape is ok.
with nukes at our disposal? The age of true tactical warfare
on a large, sustained scale are long gone. Red Storm Rising
will never occur in an age of easy and cheap nuclear armament.
\_Screw the military, we have nukes, who's gonna invade us
with nukes at our disposal? The age of true tactical
warfare on a large, sustained scale are long gone. Red
Storm Rising will never occur in an age of easy and cheap
nuclear armament.
\_ You're neither funny, nor clever, nor a good troll.
\_ You're an idiot. Or this is a weak troll. Or both.
Either way, there's no point in providing a serious
reply. No military = pick your new foreign leadership.
\_ We should take all the welfare cases, issue them with
little mind control helmets, and give them all backpack
nukes. That would rewl. Also, we should get rid of all
our tanks and buy a few hundred thousand Daihatsu Grand
Moves (the really narrow minibuses that always tip over)
and put Davy Crockett XM-28 recoilless atomic cannon on
the top of them and fill them with TNT and have these
massive swarms of little stupid-looking minibuses
with bigfoot tires chewing up the countryside lobbing
rapid-fire atomic munitions at the enemy before ramming
them in a blaze of glory. We'll get rid of INS and
customs/border patrol too, and replace them with massive
300-deep belts of of B-54 SADM nuclear land mines. We
will take care of our strategic interests by building
a titanic post-hole digger and dropping massive amounts
of nuke silos in the entire midwest, side-by-side.
Problems with Iraq? Send 'em a few Minutemen IIs for
fun. China acting up? Santa's bringing a bag full
of Titans with 20MT warheads to Peking. All US-flagged
vessels will be replaced with TridentIII subs (let the
cruise-line geezers swim) and all US air carriers will
be required to replace their planes with B-70s, for
extra impressive value. Slim Pickens for president!
Nukular Fucking Weapons! We'll be invincible! -John
\_ You're an idiot. Or this is a weak troll. Or both.
Either way, there's no point in providing a serious
reply. No military = pick your new foreign leadership.
\_ John, you my hero.
\_ Oh My God John I just creamed my shorts. I wish
I wrote that. -brain
\_ Funny how I knew this was John by line 2. I got
as far as "mind control helmets".
\_ I would totally LOVE to keep and save all the money that the
social security system is taking away from me to squander
on the retirees of today.
\_ You get your turn when you're retired to screw the
children and grand children of the people who are
screwing you now.
\_ Unfortunately, I am of post-babyboom and
pre-echoboom, meaning that I get screwed
and when I try to screw, they have the
numbers to share the burden. Maybe that
means I will have a comfortable retirement
even if I spend all my money today.
\_ Me too and no we won't because the 'echo
boomers' are going to make sure there's lots
of SS money in place before they get there.
They'll outnumber the old geezers. We'll be
fine. SS isn't the kind of program that can
be changed over night and it isn't going
away any time soon.
\_ Pay down the debt = interest rates go down, bonds are less
attractive (capital is cheaper), money is distributed to more
efficient uses (ie. capital) ... Virtually every credible
economist, including Greenspan, supports paying down the
debt before taxes. The benefits of paying down the debt
assumption of 1.5% average annual growth rate, which is way conservative.
The average for the century (with Great Depression and all) is something
like twice that, not to mention current growth rates...
outway lower taxes.
\_ Too bad we do neither to any great degree.
\_ Ah, the sound of young impressionable minds soaking up libertarian
propaganda. Government debt is not like yours or mine. Most of the
lack of a name in an inherintly anonymous forum. I
government debt is owned directly or inderectly (eq via pension funds)
private individuals. So, we have a bunch of ordinary Americans repaying
another bunch of ordinary Americans. Who exacly is getting a better deal
- the lenders or the borrowers is, as usual, far from clear.
The very popular study of Social Security going broke is based on the
assumption of 1.5% average annual growth rate, which is way
conservative. The average for the century (with Great Depression and
\_ Oops, sorry I wrote that. -- ilyas
all) is something like twice that, not to mention current growth
rates...
Does the above poster imply that "Greenspan supports lower interest
rates"? (simple transitivity) The way I understand Federal Reserve's
current approach is that they see issuing government paper as primarily
an instrument of monetary policy, not fiscal policy. -muchandr
\_ Hey Muchkin, I never had a chance to ask what your political views
were. -- ilyas
\_ Then don't. Not on the motd.
\_ Hey, the man isn't stupid, he can write me.
And sign your name.
-- ilyas
\_ What's up with the obsession with signing one's name? If
they wanted to they would have in the first place, duh.
\_ Coward. -- ilyas
\_ G-duh! You're such an idiot. "Anyone who doesn't
post everything with their real name like me is a
coward!!!! -ilyas". Sheesh, you and Tom. At least
Tom is mature enough now to stop drooling over the
anon posters and dismissing them entirely merely for
lack of a name in an inherently anonymous forum. I
suspect it'll take you even longer to grow up since
you're clearly less intelligent than Tom.
\_ It's 'inherently.' And the motd isn't inherently
anything. You can choose to sign your name and
stand by your words like me, or Tom, or psb or
you could just be an anonymous bombardier whose
words don't carry any weight. -- ilyas
\_ Anonymity does not make the words any less true.
And signing one's name doesn't make the words
any more true. You're a perfect example of
the latter. You sign everything yet your words
signify nothing. Numerous anonymous people
here have provided a lot of useful and accurate
information. Anonymity has nothing to do with
the quality or value of the contribution. And
yes the motd is inherently anonymous as there
is no signing requirement or method to enforce
such a thing. The default is anonymity. If
you choose otherwise, that's nice, but not at
all relevent to anything.
\_ If they signify nothing then replying is
a waste of time. At any rate, I am of the
opinion that truly tasteful flaming has to
have a name behind it. God knows there are
lots of people I don't like, and I never
had a problem telling them this to their
face. -- ilyas
\_ I'm glad you're happy being a loutish
boor. The rest of us try to get along
and mostly shut the fuck up when we don't
like someone because telling them so won't
improve matters and often makes it worse.
And what does tasteful flaming have to
do with anything? Feeling like a topic
change?
\_ Since low private savings rate is considered a problem, what are
are some approaches to increasing the incentive for private
savings. |
| 1999/11/8-9 [Finance/Shopping] UID:16848 Activity:high |
11.8 Looking for really cheap CD labeller and labeller program. Suggestion?
\_ sharpie marker
\_ NeatO
\_ http://neato.com not cheap
\_ Permanent Marker (tm). Cost: $1-$2. |
| 1999/9/27-28 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Finance/Shopping, Computer/HW/Display] UID:16604 Activity:high |
9/27 Anyone know if and when LCD monitor price will drop?
\_ when people start buying them. go buy a few million so that
i can afford one myself.
\_ Actually, people *are* buying them. There is and has been
a shortage of supply, which is preventing prices from
coming down (and adds to the cost of laptops). See a good
story about it at:
http://www.mercurycenter.com/premium/business/docs/computer28.htm
\_ prices will drop slowly
\_ Didn't it take a long ass time for regular 17" monitors to drop?
I bought mine for $1k and it was that price until about a year and
a half ago (or something like that).
\_ I bought a 17" monitor 4 years ago for 600, although it was
the cheapest model back then.
\_ I bought a 17" monitor 4 years ago for $450.
\_ Not new. Off a truck maybe. I got one for 650 four years
ago this summer. The lowest on the market was around 600.
There weren't any $450 17" monitors four years ago. Only
used, refurbs, and off the back of trucks. You're either
confused or lying. The high end was around $1300, btw.
$450? Ridiculous! |
| 1999/5/11-13 [Finance/Shopping] UID:15796 Activity:nil |
5/11 recommend really cheap company that provides pager service?
\_ Do you mean cheap as in the pager service is low priced
or cheap as in the company is really cheap and wants to
rip you off?
\_ low priced. not looking for anything fancy like
alpha-numeric. just cheap. how hard can that be? |
| 1999/1/28-31 [Finance/Shopping] UID:15311 Activity:nil |
1/27 Where is a good place on campus to get cheap intro to swing dance
lessons?
\_ I tried the Tuesday-night swing dance lessons at Hearst Gym
a few months ago. It wasn't exactly cheap ($5), but it
was alright. I _think_ it's on Tuesdays. --jsjacob
\_ It's on Fridays this semester. You may also want to check
out UCBD on Wednesdays, also in Hearst. Re $5, it's cheaper
if you join the club (at which point it's free).
\_ what room and what time? is there an url for this?
\_ Oh god. Will all the cs geeks please stop going to swing
clubs? It's starting to make me sick.
\_ That's right, they should all become Mambo-dancing
sexpots, like me. -John
\_ That's funny; all the CS geeks I meet at clubs are
good dancers. |
| 1999/1/6-7 [Consumer/Camera, Finance/Shopping] UID:15176 Activity:high |
1/3 I'm planning to co-locate a server (with 13 gig of HD). What is a
good and really cheap affordable backup tape drive I can buy, with good
Linux drivers?
\_ Basically, DLT > 8mm (Exabyte || AIT) or 4mm (DAT)
In my opinion, you're better off with even a DLT2000
than an Exabyte (reliability sux) or a DAT drive (reliability
also wanx) because in my 4 years x.p. in the backup field,
never once have I seen a DLT drive fail. If it's cleaned
properly, write errors are few. The newer AIT drives are
better than Exabyte's (incidentally, Exabyte declined SONY
the right to OEM there brand, hence AIT was formed) in
terms of quality and performance, however, the price is not
cheap, nor has the basic architecture of 8mm changed---tape
path from hell. The DLT has a much more natural (fewer
winding heads, less tape tention) tape path than 8mm or even
DAT. The newer DLT7000 drives easily get 5MB/sec native
compression (non-compression). AIT and the newest DDS3 hum
around 3MB/sec. Tape drive makers claim you can get 2:1
hardware compression if you turn it on (i.e. double your
performance to 10MB/sec), but this depends on how compress-
able your data is (bitmaps, text, database) and it increases
wear-and-tear on the drive heads (they must stop-and-wait-
for-data-compression-write-stop-repeat). If I had a choice
between 8mm and 4mm, I'd actually go with the 4mm - 8mm is
not any more realiable to be worth the extra $pacebux. Let
me know if you need software.
And next time, sign your name so I can send email to you.
-mtbb
\_ I've never seen an Exabyte fail except for single tape that
had been severely abused. How often have you seen Exabyte
failures?
\_ When DLT 2000s & 4000s were coming out, all the
vendors of Exabytes were sick of the piles of RMAs.
Once they began shipping DLTs instead of Exabytes,
all-the-sudden, those RMAs disappeared. The problem
with Exabyte drives is the Tape Path From Hell. It
wears down the tape, the drive heads, and since there
are more moving parts, there is a much greater chance
of tapes being eaten up, read/write heads breaking,
etc. I have never seen a DLT drive eat a tape like
an Exabyte. AIT seems to have solved some of these
issues by reducing the number of spindles and creating
a better tape path and integrating memory chips into
the tapes themselves (helps load and seek times).
While DLT7000s are still quite pricy, I think the
best price/performance deal on the market is the
DLT2000XT. If you want 8mm, avoid the 85xx and 87xx
series. The 8900 (Mammoth) drive is fair, but
expensive. I worked for a year and a half at a backup
hardware/software re-seller, then for another two and
half years at a backup software company. With drives I
personally handled, I had no failures with DLT, 1/1
Mammoth had problems loading tapes, 1/1 8700 broke twice
and uncountable 8500/8505 drive failures. As for DAT
only a few problems with those drives.
\_ Any brand-name standard SCSI DAT drive (Seagate, HP, ...). You
might want to ask whether there have been problems with a
particular model you're considering.
\_ DAT absolutely sucks. Get the cheap DLT drive or AIT. -tom
\_ Ive read alot of stuff about how DATs are bad, but I've used
the Eliant 820 8mm from Exabyte and haven't had any probs w/
it thus far, in fact it backs up http://www.housing.berkeley.edu --sly
\_ DAT is 4mm, not 8mm. The old 8mm Exabyte stuff sucks
pretty bad too but the newer may be better. I'm skeptical
of AIT. DLT is much more reliable, but $$$ and the tapes
and drives are big. If you just want something dirt cheap
the 1/4" drives work ok for occasional backups, but the
tapes are expensive. DAT is ok if the environment is
good and you keep everything clean. -phr
\_ we have DAT tapes in machine rooms that we clean
twice monthly and use new tapes every 3 months and
still have horrible reliability. -tom
\_ Yeah, but have you ever successfully done a restore? -ausman
\_ What about 8mm tapes like Exabyte?
\_ What do you think AIT is? --dim
\_ there are lotsa differences btwn normal 8mm and
AIT dipshit.. a cheap AIT drive is prob the best
solution.. dlt 4000 is prob good too but prob
gon be a bit more expensive but every bit as good
-shac
\_ Is AIT an 8mm format or isn't it? --dim
\_ AIT uses 8mm tapes but it's not compatible with old-style
exabyte formats. -tom |
| 1998/5/7 [Finance/Shopping, Computer/SW/Languages] UID:14065 Activity:low |
5/6 Recommendations for where to buy $50 list price programming books
cheap? - http://amazon.com? Barnes & Noble? book clubs? -- Thanks!
\_ That would depend on the title. Check http://www.acses.com
for a stylish comparison shopping agent for new books (or
http://www.mxbf.com for used or out of print books)
\_ Try http://www.books.com Most of the books there are cheaper
than both amazon and b&n.
\_ Except they're part of Cendant Corp... evil, evil company.
\_ ugh, <DEAD>www.bookpool.com!<DEAD> Where have you people been?
\_bookpool rules. |
| 1998/2/25-27 [Consumer/PDA, Finance/Shopping] UID:13737 Activity:high |
2/25 Where's the cheapest place to get a Palm Pilot Pro?
\_ <DEAD>www.miamimeg.com<DEAD> $297 --aaron
\_ Fry's has good prices. but you can also buy
the mem upgrade there if you need it
\_ Is Fry's cheaper than 199 for personal and $290 for pro and $100
for upgrade at <DEAD>www.miamimeg.com<DEAD>
\_ Frys prices change every couple days, and vary from being
fairly expensive to pretty good. Since they don't have
a website, you can't tell in advance. Best prices you
\_ Pick up the phone and call.
\_ yeah, that'll work. we're talking about fry's here.
can probably get are about $290-300 for the Pro. I've
rarely seen prices that low on them at Frys. -cdaveb
\_ Check out what's on clearance at Fry's. I got a Cassiopeia
for $100, when the regular price was $300. -peterl
\_ Did you ever once stop to think, "Why is this on
clearance?" Maybe it sucks, so no one buys it?
\_ Of course. I checked it out thoroughly before
buying. It works fine. The reason it was so cheap
was because they were discontinuing that item; For
$300 no one buys them, but for $100, they're pretty
cool. -peterl
\_FRY's sucks my cock. What the hell is a Cassiopeia?
Did it actually WORK when you got it home??
\_ http://www.casiohpc.com Yes, it works perfectly.
\_ http://www.pdapage.com -mogul
\_ I got my Pro plus modem for $370 incld tax from a computer show |
| 1998/2/17-18 [Finance/Shopping, Consumer/Camera] UID:13688 Activity:high |
2/17 where can i get 6 rolls of 35mm negatives reprint, cheap? -jwang
\_ Price Club / Costco. Even if you choose Kodak processing, it's
still cheaper than Kodak processing in drug stores. --- yuen
\_ If you don't mind hundreds of people pawing through the racks
to find their film, ruining yours.
\_ You get what you pay for. |
| 1996/11/5 [Finance/Shopping] UID:31993 Activity:nil |
11/4 And you people didn't belive shit^H^H^Hprintlink could be worse
than BBNPlayNet...
\_ This new connection is a joke, right? No one could believe
this incredibly shitty lossy connection works, could they?
I get better reliability and access time bouncing off
the satellites to Antartica!
\_ Anyone who said that the BBNplanet connection sucked has been
living in SpoiledBratLand for a looong time. It's my theory
that we switched to SprintNet because the campus decided it
couldn't afford BBNplanet any longer and went with a cheaper
service. (Sprintnet...) -- Marco
\_ It's not a theory - it's what actually happened (except
that the reason we couldn't afford BBNPlanet is that they
jacked up the University's rates when they went for-profit
compared to what the non-profit BARRnet was charging one
of it's co-founders).
\_ Not to mention that all the UC campuses in Northern
California will go out of one DS3 connection through
SprintLink instead of individual connections for
each campus individually. Even UCOP which had been
a CERFNet POP is now on the same SprintLink
connection. I mean even the CSU system has a
CSUNet, where's the UCNet?!?
\_ There is a UCNet inArticle Unavailable |
| 1993/5/6 [Finance/Shopping] UID:31301 Activity:nil |
5/4 Now that the high speed modems are in, does anyone know the best
place around Berkeley to buy a USR Sportster? I know I can find
them cheap, but what is the absolute cheapest they sell for?
(non mail order) -xxxxxxmp
\_ Price Club's Zoom 14.4K, v.32 v.42 modem's only $250.
Too bad they sold out.
\_ Fry's USR Sportster $210, external, fax
\_ DO mention if these are internal or external
\_ A couple of places in the current Computer Currents show the
USR Sportster 14400 w/o fax at $180 internal, $200 external.
(with fax at $209 ext). Best bet in Berkeley is to take up Uncle
Ralph's "lowest price guarantee" and haggle there, but most cheap
places are in South Bay...
\_ I paid $205 at NCA in south bay... -XXic |
| 5/16 |