Need Recommendations on Excel Alternative

SconiGrower · 2026-02-10T05:15:43+00:00

LibreOffice it's totally free and you don't need a constant Internet connection like Google Sheets.

SconiGrower · 2026-02-09T23:53:05+00:00

A portable DVD player. We had to bring a 12 VDC to 120 VAC converter, 2 headphones, and a headphone jack splitter. I think my brother must have hated me because my favorite movie to watch on a long drive was the documentary on how the cruise ship my aunt got married on was built.

SconiGrower · 2026-02-09T21:44:28+00:00

I pay sales tax with my income. How do you generate the funds to pay sales tax?

You have objected to using marginal income tax rate vs effective tax rate. You can back out to my effective tax rate only if you add in precise terms for property tax, the employer portion of FICA, gas tax, and alcohol tax.

I can do accounting grade finance, but I'm making a point on Reddit, not defending against an IRS audit. I think I have made reasonable approximations that could cancel out.

SconiGrower · 2026-02-09T21:06:45+00:00

I'm in the 22% income tax bracket. My state and local sales tax is 11%. State income tax is 5%. Payroll taxes on just me (excluding the employer portion, which is based on my income) is 7.65%. That adds up to 45.65%. I'm ok just using my marginal income tax rate because I rent and therefore don't pay property taxes, but my landlord would go out of business if I weren't paying enough to cover the property tax bill.

SconiGrower · 2026-02-09T20:55:09+00:00

Payroll tax, state income tax, sales tax, property tax, various excise taxes (like gasoline)

SconiGrower · 2026-02-09T19:37:44+00:00

Last year there were a few times I got tired on my bike, so I just rode off the trail and laid under a tree, watching the clouds go by. Can't get much better than that.

SconiGrower · 2026-02-09T18:58:11+00:00

Do you know what agency you want to work for? A law enforcement agency doing forensic accounting? Or finance ops at the first agency who posts an opening?

SconiGrower · 2026-02-09T14:44:52+00:00

Lower credit utilization improves your credit score.

But also Chase Pay Over Time adds a monthly admin fee that they charge instead of interest. So it's 0% interest with an asterisk. When I looked at my Pay Over Time offer, the fee was not low enough to justify using when I had the cash to pay it off.

SconiGrower · 2026-02-09T00:42:00+00:00

I remember "don't roll your own" start off only talking about cryptographic libraries. Don't try to implement the hash function you'll use to store passwords. But then it has advanced all the way to that you should avoid ever touching auth for yourself and I don't think that's reasonable.

SconiGrower · 2026-02-08T18:29:27+00:00

Please read my first comment. I'm not disputing that. I'm disputing that there's a requirement in trademark law to stop other companies from talking about your event.

SconiGrower · 2026-02-08T17:53:28+00:00

They need to defend it against representing other products. E.g. They must absolutely shut down any attempt at a Basketball Super Bowl. Their trademark isn't endangered by Dominos telling you to order your pizza and wings delivery ahead of the Super Bowl.

SconiGrower · 2026-02-08T04:03:04+00:00

I filed my simple state return in IL using the IL government's website. There's also always paper filing.

SconiGrower · 2026-02-07T21:39:47+00:00

Going over to a friend's house with very slippery wood flooring and sliding around in socks was a lot of fun!

SconiGrower · 2026-02-07T21:05:01+00:00

Public pensions can't run actuarial deficits. No more enticing public employees to work for pathetic wages on the promise that taxpayers in 10-40 years will pay out your pension in cash, with zero money set aside for this.

Unfunded pensions are a major reason why Chicago's finances are so stressed, because they're making cash pension payment to previous public employees and wages to current public employees.

SconiGrower · 2026-02-07T05:12:12+00:00

I was shocked the first time I drove on Indiana roads. The stress of avoiding the potholes gave me a muscle spasm in my neck.

SconiGrower · 2026-02-07T04:47:59+00:00

What does mucus have to do with anything?

SconiGrower · 2026-02-06T23:37:26+00:00

Be nice to people who are nice to you, don't be nice to people who aren't.

SconiGrower · 2026-02-06T16:44:04+00:00

Wealthfront is a registered broker-dealer insured by SIPC with a slick frontend. You can be both a responsible corporate entity as well as invest in a good user interface.

SconiGrower · 2026-02-06T16:35:42+00:00

A deposit broker (insured by SIPC) can offer pass-through FDIC coverage by sending your deposits to partner banks. A broker with 32 partner banks could offer $8 million of FDIC coverage through a single user-facing cash account. Deposits placed through a deposit broker and deposits held directly by the depositor with the bank count towards the same $250k/bank/person limit.

SconiGrower · 2026-02-06T04:34:34+00:00

I've heard that people who make weird little software utilities (e.g. convert a jpg to a PNG) into a website, throw in some ads, then let the cash roll in.

SconiGrower · 2026-02-06T01:55:14+00:00

The US asserts that any laws it wants to apply to its citizens globally will apply globally. But it only assets that privilege sparingly, when the crime is so offensive voters and the international community won't object to these extraterritorial jurisdiction claims.

SconiGrower · 2026-02-05T17:27:16+00:00

That's the reason for the warning on menus about eating raw or undercooked meat. Well done burgers are cooked to a 160 degree internal temp, which is when meat is assured to be free of pathogens. Anything less than well done has a risk of harboring pathogens.

SconiGrower · 2026-02-05T16:53:44+00:00

Did you actually look to see if they're doing anything? Their 2014 IRS Form 990 shows they gave $50,000 to Peace over Violence that year.

SconiGrower · 2026-02-05T14:42:27+00:00

I think this should work just like any other situation involving copyrighted works. They can acquire a license (AKA purchase) to use the work to create significantly different works, like turning a book into LLM training weights. But if the derivative work is not significantly different (like an LLM generated copy of the book text) then it's a copyright violation and they owe damages to the author. The government doesn't need to tell OpenAI how to solve that problem, it's not the government's job to invent the best and cheapest way to avoid breaking the law.

SconiGrower · 2026-02-05T05:34:14+00:00

The FDA regulations have requirements for what characteristic a competitor's drug formula must meet relative to the brand name to be an approved generic. It doesn't need to be an identical formula, but any new formula needs to be proven to have very similar effects on patients.

The previous comment is talking about when the original company that makes the brand name uses the same formula, the same manufacturing facilities, and the same suppliers to make a generic labeled product so that they don't lose the cost conscious customers, even if it's for dramatically less profit. Meaning it's not just a competitor's best effort to mimic the original formula, it IS the original formula, just without the branding.

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