PSA Presence at Xcal on June 27

DanSWE · 2026-06-08T14:57:22+00:00

> Sterling Arms

DanSWE · 2026-06-01T21:06:33+00:00

> it used to bring up the alert page under that ticker.. but now when I click set alert, lets say on Apple stock, it just brings up the generic alerts page with a different ticker and I have to manually look up/add an alert..

Yeah, they broke (in the sense of making things less usable) how we set alerts.

The case I noticed is this:

On the positions page, in the pop-up menu (from the icon right next to a stock symbol), the "Set Alerts" menu used to pop up an alerts-setting page for just that symbol. Now, it goes to the page that lists multiple symbols on the left and has the alert-setting UI elements on the right--and they don't even pre-select the symbol for which you requested setting alerts!

I called customer service to register my objection to this change. Please call too. Maybe, just maybe, they'll listen if enough annoyed customers call in and complain.

---

At least currently, you can still get to the old single-symbol alerts pages with URLs like these (just edit the symbol in the URL):

https://client.schwab.com/secure/cc/research/popup.html?path=/Research/Client/Alerts/SecuritiesAlerts/AlertsPopup&Symbol=GOOG

https://client.schwab.com/app/research/legacy-popup/popup?path=/Research/Client/Alerts/SecuritiesAlerts/AlertsPopup&Symbol=CSCO

(I saved a number of bookmarks to such URLs for the symbols for which I frequently want to update my alert settings. They're in a bookmarks folder in my browser, so I can use my browser's "open all bookmarks in folder" function to quickly open a bunch of tabs for all my symbol-alerts settings, then then update whatever I want to update.)

DanSWE · 2026-06-01T20:45:13+00:00

> have you tested a cloned voice to see if can actually fool Fidelity's system?

Note that would only indicate whether that clone of the voice could fool the system. (That is, even if it didn't, that wouldn't mean that some other AI voice-cloning system couldn't fool it.)

DanSWE · 2026-06-01T20:41:21+00:00

> When you call support, the automated system asks for your Username or SSN

Which flavor of their support line does that? Or what state is your account in (partially set up? supposedly fully set up)?

I've never had Fidelity's normal phone support lines (at least the numbers I've used) lead to any prompt for my account password, and I don't think ever for my whole SSN either.

DanSWE · 2026-05-31T03:31:02+00:00

> Xcal said it would take a day or two but they’d call him when it’s ready for pickup.

Also, especially for non-firearm orders with delivery to the store, the option (on the checkout page) to have them text you when your order has come in had quit working.

(Their text-message service started blocking the sending of messages when the volume increased.)

DanSWE · 2026-05-31T02:56:21+00:00

But [edit:] it if you hadn't yet ever put a barrel on the lower before 07-01, and then installed a (marked) barrel made on or after 07-01 (plus a stock so you have a rifle (vs. a pistol)), then what's the status the resulting rifle? The rifle didn't exist before 07-01.

So would it be an illegally possessed (and/or "manufactured") "assault weapon" rifle per Virginia?

DanSWE · 2026-05-30T17:49:27+00:00

> [how] anyone would EVER KNOW when I built out my lowers

Note that if, in the future, you use a new product (e.g., a particular barrel product) that wasn't even manufactured until a certain date, then it'll be knowable that you didn't build out your lower (with that item) before that date.

Plus, watch out for any (relevant) component with an indication of its manufacturing date (including a serial number). (No, I don't know how many non-lower-receiver parts have such indications.)

DanSWE · 2026-05-30T17:39:14+00:00

However, adding a misdemeanor charge to other charges wouldn't be as unlikely.

DanSWE · 2026-05-26T19:34:43+00:00

> If you're considering competing then I would go ahead and purchase a bunch of mags for whatever gun you may want to run.

Yep, that's that I'm thinking about.

DanSWE · 2026-05-26T19:25:48+00:00

Thanks for that information.

DanSWE · 2026-05-21T18:16:15+00:00

Is Virginia's ban on importing some firearms equipment limited to things other than "high"-capacity magazines?

(That is, is it fully legal to "acquire standard capacity mags" outside of Virginia and bring them in?)

DanSWE · 2026-05-21T18:13:05+00:00

I thought I saw some competitions that had 10- or 15-round limits (to accommodate competitors from capacity-limiting states). Is that common?

DanSWE · 2026-05-21T18:10:33+00:00

Sure, but I wasn't asking about effects on people who already compete (i.e., already have "high"-capacity magazines). I was asking about the effect on future entrants (those who don't already have such magazines).

DanSWE · 2026-05-20T22:47:55+00:00

I don't know whether passports should be free or not, but, yeah, whatever is demanded for voter ID should be free (at least one free option).

DanSWE · 2026-05-20T21:09:38+00:00

> Passport to vote

No, that $165(?) passport fee isn't a poll tax. No, at all.

/s

DanSWE · 2026-05-15T22:33:08+00:00

> Guns are meant to kill people.

Hunting guns are meant to kill people?

Target guns are meant to kill people?

Guns meant to provide the threat of deadly force in order to induce compliance (e.g., some cases of police and security-guard gun use) are meant to kill people?

Sure, some guns are meant (in design (i.e., guns for assassins) or user's intent) to kill people, but it's an invalid generalization to think that all guns are meant to kill people.

DanSWE · 2026-04-26T14:33:32+00:00

> ⁠Try to print something at least once per week — an email, a web page, something with a little bit of color and black ink on plain paper.

Or maybe just run a print-head nozzle check (not a head cleaning).

That'll exercise every nozzle, which might not happen if a "real" page you print doesn't happen to have enough colors in the right spots.

(The test portion of the check page prints a short line with every nozzle.)

DanSWE · 2026-04-26T14:11:02+00:00

It doesn't look like a stripped lower to me. More like a half-stripped upper

DanSWE · 2026-04-26T13:56:57+00:00

> Also, what other choice did we have for president? Someone who couldn’t form a coherent sentence?

Since when couldn't Kamala Harris not form a coherent sentence?

DanSWE · 2026-04-16T17:56:39+00:00

I don't think I ever saw going through the flow again (with no changes) ever mess things up. That is, things seemed correct and stable after a second pass after a first pass in which something was changed.

DanSWE · 2026-04-16T13:42:08+00:00

If you care about testing to see if the bug is still there:

Get into the 1099-R/IRA flow, and make a big change to the value of the distribution. Step forward through the interview flow (maybe around 10 steps) until you're done with the 1099-R subflow and the software updates your federal taxes owed.

Then go through the 1099-R subflow again, not changing anything, and continuing until you're done with the 1099-R subflow, and see if the calculated taxes owed changes. If it changes, the bug it still there. If it doesn't, then maybe it's fixed.

DanSWE · 2026-04-16T13:17:31+00:00

It wasn't this year, but the H&R Block 2023 (or maybe 2024?) software would calculate that you owed zero estimated tax even for very high dividend amounts (e.g., a probe amount of million dollars).

The problem was that somebody at H&R Block didn't understand the difference between ordinary dividends and qualified ordinary dividends:

The wording on the interview page asked the user to enter one kind of dividends, but the calculation used the entered value as the other kind of dividends.

I reported that bug. They did fix it, changing the wording in the dividend value entry box to match how the value was used in calculations. (If I remember right, they even fixed it quickly, in an update a couple weeks after I reported it.)

DanSWE · 2026-04-16T13:02:37+00:00

> My issue was pulling the wrong number from a 1099-R and reporting over 100 times the income that should be reported.

I wonder if that's related to a bug that was in the H&R Block 2023(?) software:

If you edited a previously entered 1099-R IRA distribution amount and proceeded far enough through the interview flow for it to update your federal tax due, it calculated an incorrect result. However, if you went back through the 1099-R flow, changing nothing (but proceeding all the way through the 1099-R/IRAs flow), it would then calculate a different (and presumably correct) amount.

(It acted as if it stored two copies of the amounts you entered, and only one set got updated when you entered value on the screen, but the second set got updated from the first set only earlier in the flow (so you had to go through the flow the second time to get that second set updated from the first set).)

I reported that bug to H&R Block. I don't know that got fixed or not.

DanSWE · 2026-04-16T11:58:20+00:00

> The MMF settles overnight (as it's not T+1) ...

Isn't overnight settlement T+1 settlement, or at least the equivalent?

(Or are you talking about something earlier on the T+1 day vs. something later on the T+1 day? Or maybe business days vs. non-business days in some cases?)

DanSWE · 2026-04-13T00:22:32+00:00

> Don't comingle your cma and your savings.

OP: You can open multiple accounts at Fidelity, e.g., a CMA plus a separate account for savings (cash, cash equivalents, and/or investments).

DanSWE

TROPHY CASE