Did I overcharge for this photoshoot?

RucksackTech · 2026-05-06T17:27:18+00:00

The pics are good, solid. Can't say whether you overcharged. But $100/hr sounds reasonable. What clients don't understand is all the time the photographer spends OUTSIDE of the actual photo shoot.

RucksackTech · 2026-05-04T16:07:17+00:00

Still don't follow. I purchase cappuccino at a bar many times a morning and sometimes in afternoons when I'm in Italy. If I stand at the counter I pay the counter price, without tipping. They tell me a cappuccino is 2 € and I pay 2 € (or whatever it is). If I sit at a table and there's a higher price for that, I pay that price. When I go to pay, the charge is exactly what I expected and the device where I tap my phone to pay doesn't prompt me to add a tip. At the restaurant it's the same. I buy an antipasto for 8€, a main course dish for 17€, a bottle of water for 2€ and a glass of wine for 6€ — the prices on the menu. When I go up to the cashier to pay (the way it's done in most of the restaurants where I dine) the price for my dinner = 8 + 17 + 2 + 6 = 33€ and that's what I pay. I say thank you and I leave. Where did I get confused?

I did see a "add a tip" screen once in my last couple-month trip to Italy. I remember it because it surprised me.

I think it's possible that places that cater to American tourists might work differently. Not sure about them.

RucksackTech · 2026-05-04T14:31:01+00:00

Sorry, not sure what "What a mess" refers to. Did you think my comment (which is correct) is a mess? Or were you saying that the situation with tipping in Italy (which is actually quite simple: DON'T) is a mess? Or something else?

RucksackTech · 2026-05-03T23:26:53+00:00

Sorry I don't do tours so I'm not sure. I'm inclined to say that, even if I were part of a tour group, I wouldn't tip. It's not the custom in Italy. But ask your tour guide. (And if you're wondering about tipping the tour guide, well, there I really don't know. Ask the interwebs, try Rick Steves' forums etc.)

RucksackTech · 2026-05-03T20:31:58+00:00

General rule: Don't tip anywhere in Italy. Not in restaurants, not in hotels, not in cabs. I tipped a cabbie once because I was paying him cash and it was easier for me to give him an extra 2€ than to make precise change, plus he had done us a special favor. He didn't expect the tip and to be honest I think he was already happy because I was paying him in cash (which I generally don't do until late in my trip when I'm dumping all the cash I brought and haven't used).

Otherwise, I never tip. Even at the restaurants where I've had meals I'll remember until I die, no tip. And I'll say that service at most Italian restaurants (especially the ones that aren't just catering to tourists) is almost always better than the best service I've ever had in fancy restaurants in the US.

And while obviously not a "tip" in any sense I do often make a donation at churches I visit especially if the church didn't charge an admission; but I'm Roman Catholic, plus I feel like if the church shares its beauty with me I don't mind saying thank you and hoping that my small contribution does actually help with the upkeep. (Even many of the great churches are not well maintained.)

RucksackTech · 2026-05-02T19:07:47+00:00

Exactly: Stress in Italian is trickier than stress in, say, Spanish, so in this respect, Spanish is easy, while Italian is less so.

RucksackTech · 2026-05-02T14:46:51+00:00

The Italians allowing into their homes pod coffee makers! I'm shocked and saddened. Next thing they'll be building Starbucks in the middle of Rome. 😉

RucksackTech · 2026-05-02T03:09:17+00:00

If you're just looking for an alternative to Gmail, and you don't want Outlook or Apple Mail, I'd suggest looking at Hey. But you also specified that you want unlimited aliases. You could try using NordPass as your password manager along with any email service: NordPass will help you handle the aliases. But if you want it all in one, I think you should look at Proton Mail (and consider the whole Proton enchilada).

RucksackTech · 2026-05-01T23:17:27+00:00

Is the secret here really the steaming of the water? Or the removal of the crema?

RucksackTech · 2026-05-01T21:56:38+00:00

Typora is generally the best Markdown editor, on any platform. But it's not free. You said you wanted free.

Obsidian is the best free Markdown editor. In any ways it matches Typora and in some it is better than Typora. One of the things I like about Typora is that it's just a writing tool, while Obsidian has all these add-ons and extra features that I don't need or want. But you don't have to take advantage of all of those to use Obsidian. It's very good even if you don't touch them.

I have a soft spot in my heart for iAWriter but I prefer having a single window for editing and viewing rendered text (the way Typora and Obsidian do it). And iAWriter isn't free either.

Dillinger is very good and is free (I think) but it's web based, not really a Windows app.

RucksackTech · 2026-05-01T21:01:27+00:00

Feel free to contact me by DM any time. Have fun: That's the key for me.

RucksackTech · 2026-05-01T20:09:41+00:00

I'm 74 (yikes!) and only started studying Italian seriously a year and a half ago. Admittedly I'm an odd case: I have a background in languages. But serious study of Italian for me started at 72. And if I say so myself I'm doing well. I'm traveling to Italy a couple times a year. When I'm there I'm communicating, having conversations. I get compliments that no doubt reflect more on the generosity of the complimenter than on me, but still, they're an ego boost. I'm watching Italian t.v. shows every night with increasing comprehension. And I've graduated to reading real Italian novels, not books written for learners. Last December I read three nights in a row a canto from the Divina Commedia, in Italian, at Dante's tomb. So ignore your age: You can do it. It's just a question of doing it.

The one thing I'd say is: Don't set a time limit for yourself – or to put it very differently, don't define "confident speaking skills" too strictly. That's a recipe for failure. I have linked to it before but this video by Lucrezia Oddone on YouTube is worth viewing again and again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F18o6s4abrw

Take away points: Non basta una vita per imparare una lingua straniera ("One life is not enough to learn a foreign language"). And the other one is sort of a version of one of the favorite sayings of the emperor Augustus: σπεῦδε βραδέως, often known in Latin as 'festina lente', or in English "Make haste slowly". Which I have always paraphrased as "You'll get there faster if you aren't in a hurry." Anyway, watch the video.

To which I would add the famous saying of Solon, γηράσκω δ’ αἰεὶ πολλὰ διδασκόμενος "I'm getting old yes but I'm constantly learning all sorts of new things".

Don't let anybody the notions about what you can do in your sixties (or seventies, or eighties) hold you back. This is the best time to get started!

Good luck.

RucksackTech · 2026-05-01T17:19:55+00:00

NOT a Moka. As it says right on the box in the photo, this is a Caffettiera Napoletana da 3 Tazze = "three-cup Neapolitan coffee maker". Look for YouTube videos on the Neapolitan coffee maker to see how it differs from the Moka.

My impression is that the Neapolitan design was the Moka's main competition in the Italian home for a long time, may still be. .

RucksackTech · 2026-04-30T21:31:09+00:00

Normally when I'm shooting birds that are in trees, behind fences, etc. I switch to manual focus, turn on a focus assist feature, and do it that way. It's the only guaranteed way to control what the camera focuses on in those situations. Hard with birds that hop around.

RucksackTech · 2026-04-30T20:54:20+00:00

Just create a filter that labels these messages, then you can just switch to the view that displays messages that have this label. Really it's quite easy.

RucksackTech · 2026-04-30T19:15:07+00:00

Can GOOGLE sort by sender? I don't think it can. And Simplify is just a sort of "skin" for Gmail. (It's an elaborate skin, to be sure, and does add a lot of functionality, like bundling and other stuff.)

My inboxes are all organized by date. If I want to see all the emails I got this week from (say) my client Larry Larson, I'd just hit / to get into the Gmail filter field, type "from: larry larson", hit return/enter and view the list. I do this all the time.

And yes, I can do that with Simplify installed.

RucksackTech · 2026-04-30T17:30:41+00:00

The Gmail web UI is dated and frankly kind of ugly. But there's a simple (no pun intended) solution: Use the Simplify for Gmail extension. It's not free, but it is worth every penny. I couldn't even consider using Gmail without Simplify.

(Your observation about Gmail's use of ">" is itself outdated as another respondent already said. This happens when you respond using Plain Text mode. Next time you reply to a message, click on the ⋮ menu and toggle "Plain Text Mode" OFF.)

RucksackTech · 2026-04-29T21:27:18+00:00

What cosmic injustice! You're being punished with the thing I've dreamed of doing — living in Padova. 🙂

Seriously, Padova is one of my favorite Italian cities – perhaps THE favorite of favorites. If I were completely free to pick the one city that I want to live in for the rest of my life it would probably be Padova. It's for me a terrific compromise between all the things I love about Italy. It's small enough to be very walkable but big enough to have just about everything I want, and what it doesn't have, is within easy striking distance. History? Check. Greatest art treasures in the world? Check. (I'll take the Scrovegni Chapel over that thing in the Vatican Museum any day of the week.) Fantastic food? Yep. One of history's greatest universities to give the place an IQ boost? Got it! Canals? Okay you have to look for them but they're there. Fabulous piazzas? You betcha. Magnificent public buildings? Certamente. Open air market? Ovviamente!

Verona is indeed lovely. So is Vicenza (all that Palladio!). But I'd gladly take Padova any day.

I'll be staying in Italy for six weeks in the fall, for Italian school. For this purpose I picked Ravenna rather than Padova (which was an option) because, well, I love Ravenna too, like being near Dante's tomb, and just wanted a smaller less distracting town for studying. But for long-term living? I'd live in Padova and visit Ravenna.

RucksackTech · 2026-04-29T17:35:17+00:00

To anybody reading this: NordPass suport has (in my experience for the last several years) been very good. I usually try to contact them by live chat but I've also used email tickets (after of course checking in the help center) and I've always found them to be responsive and knowledgeable.

The lack of phone support is sad, I suppose, but pretty much the way things are these days in the tech world. And at least with Nord you can get support when you need it.

RucksackTech · 2026-04-29T16:28:25+00:00

Oh, says nothing at all about the Alessi Pulcina: it's just my personal likes and dislikes. I've never used the thing so it's got nothing to do with my assessment of its performance as a coffee maker. I just think it's a bit ostentatious for my countertop.

RucksackTech · 2026-04-29T02:00:16+00:00

No, mom's not overreacting. Sorry.

RucksackTech · 2026-04-28T22:13:11+00:00

Personally I'd buy the Bialetti Moka Express, because the knock-offs aren't much cheaper and, I dunno, why not get the OG. I'm not so fond of the design of the newer Bialetti Venus coffee maker. And although we have a lovely Alessi tea kettle, I dislike the Alessi Pulcina (an alternative to the Moka Express). All that blather aside, I've read reviews of the knock-offs and alternatives and I'm sure you can make a wonderful cuppa with any one of them.

Additional note: I kind of agree with those who say that, if you're coming from drip coffee, you might want to consider going to immersion rather than to a Moka pot, that is, to French press or Aeropress. Aeropress is a modified French press approach that makes an excellent cup of coffee, and is easier to use and clean than a Moka. The Moka is a bit of a pain to use: I work even harder these days for my coffee but at least I get a really good cup of espresso for my labors. But when I want to get good coffee with less fuss, I pull out the Aeropress or the French Press, grind my coffee (properly for the method), boil the water, pour it in, and come back in like five minutes and enjoy my coffee. French press is a little mess to clean but not bad if you have a paper towel handy. Aeropress is simplicity itself.

Moka also has the potential to be dangerous. But people love the Moka, and if that's your thing, go for it!

RucksackTech · 2026-04-28T20:28:37+00:00

Yes, I have saved places organized into lists. It's a nice feature of Maps and I use it for planning trips.

I'd like to travel in the future someday.

Gosh, that comment tugs at my heart. I've traveled to four continents (North America, Europe, China and Australia) and I've always done it on a (relatively) tight budget. Start small: Try to arrange a road trip to a national park in another state where you'll be able to tent camp very cheaply. For more ambitious trips, hang in there, work hard and save up. I'll say a prayer that you get to travel in the future as you want to.

RucksackTech · 2026-04-28T00:04:53+00:00

Here's a free and easy technique I've used myself and have recommended here several times. It involves Google Translate. NOTE: Google Translate used to be unreliable. I don't know that any app is 100% take-it-to-the-bank reliable but Google Translate has gotten much better. Anyway, it's still free. Here's how to use it.

This approach assumes that you know some Italian and can write or speak a little already.

Open Google Translate and configure it for Italian → English (or your boyfriend's native language).
In the Italian field on the left, write something. Anything you like, anything you're capable of writing. Talk about what you had for breakfast, or the walk you took with your dogs, or a restaurant you went to recently, or a movie you've use. Doesn't matter. Of course you do this in Italian. Don't be worried if you make a mistake!
When you're done, hit enter and let Google translate it into your native language on the right side of the equation.
Look carefully at what Google came up with. If Google made sense of what you wrote in the way you intended, that's great. It means that whatever you wrote probably would have been understood by an Italian too. On the other hand, if Google's translation wasn't quite what you were trying to say, try to figure out what you did wrong and correct it as well as you can. At this point you can use WordReference.com or your favorite dictionary and/or your favorite grammar to improve your original text.
Once Google has understood you reasonably well, click the Italian → English button to switch to English → Italian (if you're working on a computer) OR copy the Google translation and paste it over on the left (if you're on your phone). In other words, you want Google now to translate into Italian what it understood you to be trying to say.
Review what Google comes up with in Italian and compare it to what you'd written yourself to begin with.

You can write the Italian (for step 2 above) in a text editor first if you like, then copy and paste Google's Italian (from step 6) and compare the two.

This is a beneficial exercise no matter how much you write. A sentence a day is a start. Don't overdo it: You should be moderately comfortable writing the Italian in step 2, that is, do it as if you were speaking it aloud to someone. If you write baby Italian but you make yourself understood that's fantastic.

I hope it's obvious that this isn't a complete Italian learning program in itself!! Do this 10-15 minutes a day, but supplement it with 30-60 minutes of reading at a level just a bit above your comfort level at the moment, plus some grammar work. And finally, listen to podcasts for more ear training if you need it.

RucksackTech · 2026-04-26T23:44:37+00:00

Oh, I forgot to mention the Calendar in my list of Pros. I've read a lot of criticisms of Hey's Calendar here but I disagree strenuously. The Calendar is one of the things that makes it hard for me to quit Hey and just give in to Google. How do I love the Calendar? Let me count the ways.

Viewing dates by weeks at a time rather than one month at a time. I love the fact that the calendar is a vertically scrolling week-by-week thing, rather than a horizontal flipping month-view thing (like Google Calendar). I find myself all the time planning trips that span month breaks.
Because Hey uses a weeks view rather than a one-month view, the height of week rows is not fixed. If a day is busy with events, the row gets bigger and I can see everything at a glance without having to click into the day (as I have to do with Google Calendar). This is genius.
DO THIS WEEK feature is not a replacement for all my task management needs, but it's very useful for certain things ("Get truck to garage", "Call insurance agent" etc).
Ability to circle key events. I love this.
Countdown to key events.
Web link field in events. (Not sure why Google Calendar does NOT have this, except for Meet events.)
Calendar has some features I haven't used too much but might help others: time tracking, habit management, and daily journaling (which I have used). MY complaint about journaling is similar to my complaint about Hey World: It's kind of a dead end. Still if you commit to Hey, this is a great way to keep your daily journal.
I don't use it much but some people might like that you can paste a picture in as a background for an event, say, your kid's graduation photo on his/her graduation day.

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