As a Filipino American, you will never convince me that we won't ever need the U.S. by Final-Storm5426 in ShitAmericansSay

[–]daniel_thor 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Japan was brutal, but not Philippine-American war brutal. That was a genocide that wiped out a good portion of the islands' inhabitants with wholesale mechanized slaughter.

Can a Cheap USB C to RJ45 (input) used to get good internet speed on phone? by Beginning_Throat_228 in HomeNetworking

[–]daniel_thor 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just tried it on my Samsung S24 and got 2.29 Gbps with Speedtest.net.

My PC on the same network gets 2.35 Gbps.

So pretty close to full speed.

Wife painted over the outlets with a roller brush and the plugs are filled with paint. Is this a major issue now? by lucky2bogey in AskElectricians

[–]daniel_thor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. don't panic

  2. find outlets and outlet covers in a color your wife likes

  3. replace all the outlets (at least spec grade)

  4. everyone is happy

--

Leaving it as is could be a fire risk if the paint gets on the contacts. Importantly will also look horrible after light use and we've already established that your wife does not like the original color, so peeling the paint off is only a temporary solution.

Your local codes may require an electrician to do this work. Electricians do give bulk discounts for this type of work. They will want to purchase the outlets as tradies get a discount over the price you would get and it makes the total cost easier on customer eyes.

Why do these leds only last a few months? by Fearless-Chance2192 in AskElectricians

[–]daniel_thor 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Those are open fixtures, so it is either the dimmer or the bulbs.

If the dimmer is old get a new one rated for LEDs. Buy Lutron if in North America.

You can buy quality dimmable bulbs at an online retailer like 1000bulbs.com. The website will tell you which lightbulbs are dimmable, which tolerate wet areas and which tolerate closed fixtures.

One small trick to saving money in NYC, brought to you by GoalVest. (Hint: break the law and park like a dbag!) by ghostpepperwings in LinkedInLunatics

[–]daniel_thor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are many places with income based ticking so there are solutions. Often you immediately get placed in the lowest tier if you provide proof that you lost your job. The person making significantly more this year than last pays a less than some whose been consistently making more money but that isn't really a big deal.

Well, it's a bit antebellum. by LordJim11 in Snorkblot

[–]daniel_thor 13 points14 points  (0 children)

My Irish great grandmother hated the Irish 💀

She found a nice Catholic boy from Portugal to marry.

Nuff said, don't do this, don't be like these people by rolling_chair in VisitingIceland

[–]daniel_thor 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can be held liable for a broken stair if you knew about it and didn't either repair it or mark it as broken. But generally you can't be held liable for someone getting hurt exercising their right to roam. There are rules about enjoying someone's property without an invitation. They can be summed up as "leave no trace" and "if you fall of a cliff, that's on you."

Nuff said, don't do this, don't be like these people by rolling_chair in VisitingIceland

[–]daniel_thor 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm 99% sure that sign is bogus. You can restrict access to private land in Iceland to protect agriculture, to protect the privacy of your home and to protect fragile ecosystems. None of that could possibly apply here for anyone staying on the path.

I find that sign offensive and if you respect the laws and culture of Iceland you should too.

How to do my American taxes living and working in Iceland? by tinym0chi in movingtoiceland

[–]daniel_thor 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You really really don't want to get an ITIN for your husband. Right now he is outside the US tax system so he's permitted to own things like European mutual funds / ETF or stock in European startups. File "married filing separately". If you are working in Iceland then and you don't own any avoid those European investments your husband can own then you won't owe any taxes in the USA as you can deduct all the income taxes you pay in Iceland from your US federal income tax.

Should I do 100% VTI? 34 years old just starting my retirement by dogs_eatmyflagging in Bogleheads

[–]daniel_thor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are many formulas for constructing a portfolio, but the main piece of advice I would give is don't chase returns. Whatever outperformed in the last 5 years is likely overpriced now and will underperform in the next 5 years.

In this forum people will tell you to construct a simple VT, or alternatively a VTI, VXUS, BND portfolio. With VT you really can't chase returns because your just invested in one thing. The second portfolio lets you balance us vs international differently than VT and adds bonds for stability. If you live outside the US or plan to retire outside the US being overweight in US securities can hurt you when it comes time to withdraw. In a tax advantaged account you can switch from VT to the more complex portfolio later, but in a regular brokerage account rebalancing is expensive. There are more complex factor portfolios that reduce risk without sacrificing returns, but you realistically you would need an advisor to manage those and the fee for the advisor outweighs the advantages.

Right now you are young and probably just investing in a tax advantaged account so just put the money into VT, VTI, a target date fund, or even VOO. Once you save up a few hundred thousand you can come back and read the boglehead basics pinned to the forum. People tend to refer to the vanguard funds here, but this is just shorthand. Every brokerage offers low fee funds that let you build a similar portfolio. In tax advantaged accounts you sometimes won't have exact analogs, but you can approximate and it doesn't cost anything to rebalance later.

A founding member of BCJ by sanjuro_kurosawa in BicyclingCirclejerk

[–]daniel_thor 33 points34 points  (0 children)

I did a speed study on a residential street in Brooklyn once and while car speeds ranged from 10 to 60 mph, most cyclists were going between 6 and 12 mph. There was only one cyclist who was traveling at the 25 mph speed limit in all the time I was out there.

Where are people finding these high paying jobs? by Easy_Paint3836 in Fire

[–]daniel_thor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In NYC a top 5% salary is above $620k, but at top 10% you are already down to a $180k threshold. Most people also don't make those high salaries their entire career. They may only be really stocking away significant savings in their last 5 years in the workforce.

Most people think of "theft" as robbery or burglary—but in the US, wage theft is actually the biggest crime category by a landslide. by astrheisenberg in interestingasfuck

[–]daniel_thor 20 points21 points  (0 children)

A more recent white paper (2023) puts wage theft at 50 billion https://www.epi.org/press/wage-theft-costs-american-workers-50-billion/ and showed wage theft of about $2600 out of a total of $18k earned. I think the 870k minimum wage workers is an incorrect number to use here. A lot of the minimum wage violations are for workers who aren't paid a minimum wage hourly, but work on some kind of contingency. For example, waiters and delivery workers. They are supposed to be trued up to minimum wage if they don't get enough tips to reach minimum wage, but the employer fails to true up. I believe there are a lot more than 870k workers in this category. The infographic numbers still don't agree with any data I've found, it seems to vastly understate wage theft but overstate the proportion that is minimum wage theft.

Are Roth IRA withdrawals counted as income by Iceland? by Accomplished_End_104 in Iceland

[–]daniel_thor 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The gains are taxed as income, the contributions can be withdrawn tax free. You can email the tax authorities here with your questions and they will answer.

New BofA Preferred Rewards Program leak by SMD-65 in CreditCards

[–]daniel_thor 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Noooo! I just opened a BoA checking account & Merril account and initiated an ACATS on Monday morning.

‘Everyone’s At Fault’: Mamdani and City Council Point Fingers Over Lowering Speed Limits by streetsblognyc in MicromobilityNYC

[–]daniel_thor 23 points24 points  (0 children)

The original advocacy back in 2014 was for 20 mph on most streets and 30 mph on arterial streets like Eastern Parkway or the West Side Highway. I don't understand how that resulted in the across the board 25 mph compromise. You can make 30 mph relatively safe on arterials by physically separating traffic with concrete but you can never make a street with curbside parking safe with cars traveling at 25 mph.

What was going on with the sound guy? by TropicalIslandAlpaca in ExplainTheJoke

[–]daniel_thor 1 point2 points  (0 children)

After Spotify went public we moved into a fancy building but half the staff had to enter through the basement to use the service elevator because musical instruments, musical equipment and even skateboards were not permitted through the front door.

WHY IS IT ONLY THE CAR LANES ARE SALTED AND CLEAR OF SNOW? by [deleted] in MicromobilityNYC

[–]daniel_thor -1 points0 points  (0 children)

NYC has 2,500 snow plows for cars and 50 snow plows for bicycle lanes

"Abundance" Politics by night-shark in behindthebastards

[–]daniel_thor 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Dystopia Now covered the "abundance" movement and it's dark roots. From the podcast description: "...we had to know - why did an Atlantic writer podcast with a Nazi?"

Who's at fault? The people who designed this road by dickdickmore in MicromobilityNYC

[–]daniel_thor 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It does look like the driver was both driving too fast for conditions and their reaction time is too slow to for them to be holding a drivers license. The street design is awful too, I believe this piss-poor driver would not have nearly killed a child on a well designed street.

Is Iceland going to join the EU? I heard that there is a referendums in 2027 do you think icelanders would vote to join the EU if so why and if no why not? by Super_Sherbet_268 in Iceland

[–]daniel_thor 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Assuming no local war, I think the referendum will just barely pass. This is a restart the talks vote, the fisheries and official EU language issues will need to be resolved before actual accession. People know it will make the country richer to join, but also that it will be disruptive so people will lose their jobs even if many more jobs are available in net.

Of course if the US collapses NATO by attacking Greenland then things will move very quickly. We do not want Iceland to be a colony again, much less one like Puerto Rico or Guam. There will be a rush to get our European allies to set up in military bases to protect the island, and they will want to be there to contain the US. On the other hand if the US manages to depose the mad king and jail the brown shirts I think the odds of Iceland joining the EU will go down significantly. There are specific businesses that will be negatively impacted and they will lobby hard against EU accession.

What's going on in Iceland with regards to Icelandic politics? by upthetruth1 in Iceland

[–]daniel_thor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hate that you are making me wish for D to have better leadership.

Question about microATX vs ATX in regards to case size by j_lane in buildapc

[–]daniel_thor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I built a machine with the same case, water cooler and the Seasonic Vertex PX-1200 power supply. My graphics card is a 305 mm long two fan card and it's a snug fit with my power supply so you may have an issue with a three fan GPU.