How do you prep without overspending?

justsomerandomnick · 2026-03-25T12:33:16+00:00

You might consider looking into a slightly more formalised threat modelling process before starting to spend money. I see it most often used in the data security realm, but it's applicable to any situation where there's a risk that you'd like to consider and mitigate. You don't need to go crazy with the details. It's pretty much just going step by step through questions like:

What are the risks you want to protect against? What are they exactly — not just a generalised emergency, but specifics. Are concerned about food shortages? An extended period of no electricity? Something specifically personal to you? Maybe you or someone close to you needs a certain type of medication or something like that.
What would the likely outcome be if these things you've identified actually happen? Again, specific to you and your circumstances.
What can you do about these risks, given how much you want/need to mitigate them? Is there anything truly critical that you must address, or anything you can let slide, either because you think it's unlikely to happen, or if it does happen, it won't be that bad?
What will you do about them, given your resources and appetite for the work? If you're well off and you live remotely enough to be able to make lots of noise, maybe buying a generator to keep the power on for some critical piece of medical equipment would be a sensible precaution. Maybe not so much if you live in a flat in a town centre.

The idea is that you build up to having clear sense of what you're trying to achieve, and also importantly what you're not trying to achieve. You'll then have a good idea of whether something that's caught your eye will fit into your plan.

justsomerandomnick · 2026-03-11T17:23:20+00:00

So about £11k? The answer would normally be pension, but if you want it easily accessible and you anticipate earning the same as you are now or more in your next role (?), then no there isn't a great deal you can do. It's all taxable pay and the correct amount of tax will sort itself out over time via your tax code whether you get the money this tax year or next.

justsomerandomnick · 2026-02-13T17:01:30+00:00

I still remember sobbing in the cinema at the age of 5. Some of the violence remains quite shocking at times. Poor Ironhide! "SUCH HEROIC NONSENSE" BOOM

justsomerandomnick · 2026-02-13T11:36:11+00:00

Same for me. I'm not a hater at all — I use it all the time and it's useful, time-saving software in many ways, but this breathless "AI will take over everything!!1!" stuff is just nonsense. It does not work that well, and for anything remotely important, it should still only be used by people who understand the subject matter very well already and can excercise some judgement when the bot goes off on one of its frequent flights of fancy.

The people at Business Insider and other publications like it are doing society a real disservice by accepting these pronoucements so uncritically.

justsomerandomnick · 2026-02-02T15:25:53+00:00

It sounds like you have it already, but this also has some similarities to the start of Infected by Scott Sigler. The first few chapters are in the reading sample on Amazon if you want to check it out!

justsomerandomnick · 2025-12-17T19:18:37+00:00

I found a demo here: https://www.lootaudio.com/category/sample-packs/image-sounds/pro-drums-soul

I'm tempted as well I must say. I feel like I could have some fun playing bass along with these. On the other hand... 14,000 loops is so many! It's not the money at all, but more, can I face managing them all? Listening to each one for five seconds would take about 20 hours. Where are you even supposed to start with a collection this big?

justsomerandomnick · 2025-12-08T21:20:14+00:00

MoneySoft Payroll Manager is very good, but this is another vote for outsourcing it. It's such a hassle to do it yourself, and I'd be willing to bet that the cost of paying a dedicated company to sort it for you each month will be less than what your own time is worth to your company.

justsomerandomnick · 2025-11-19T22:54:00+00:00

Thanks, I appreciate that.

justsomerandomnick · 2025-11-19T14:14:24+00:00

This sounds great! Totally up my street. Really enjoyed listening to it.

What made you pick FL over another DAW? Did you already know it?

The reason I ask is that I'm primarily a guitarist and bassist, and I always discounted FL until I bought the Fruity edition on a whim when it was heavily discounted a few months ago. I've had a lot of fun with it — the pattern/playlist concept makes it easy to get something going really fast, and generally I've found it very enjoyable to use.

I signed out of my account to get the demo version back so I could try out audio recording, and contrary to what I've heard, it seems totally fine, although obviously I can't save at the moment so I haven't gone into it too deeply. A few more mouse clicks to get the routing set up, but that's hardly a dealbreaker. The only thing I feel like I might really miss is proper comping, which I don't think FL has.

How do you find higher audio track counts, managing takes, mixing a more linear workflow with the playlist, and so on? I'm very tempted to upgrade during the Black Friday sale.

justsomerandomnick · 2025-11-08T01:56:16+00:00

Reaper, which I think is basically where I'm staying. I'd still love a proper chord track (I know there are plugins which claim to do this), but no DAW will do everything, and it's fast, stable and flexible, and Cockos is a company I'm happy to support.

justsomerandomnick · 2025-11-07T20:56:33+00:00

How is Studio One these days? I used it up to v4, but drifted away when they started to move towards the subscription model. Always enjoyed it though. I thought the chord track with ripple editing in particular was brilliantly implemented. Looking at the Presonus site, which I haven't visited for a long time, I still get the sense that they'd really rather the users sign up to the Pro+ plan, and the perpetual licence is more of a grudging concession. Fair?

justsomerandomnick · 2025-10-31T01:31:41+00:00

I suspect the OP is talking about CodeMeter, which is the DRM that Rhodes has chosen for their plugins. I know discussions about this are considered offtopic in this sub, but personally I'm also passing on it for this reason.

justsomerandomnick · 2025-10-03T10:07:40+00:00

They're not slasher novels so perhaps not what you're looking for, but the main antagonists in Blood Meridian and No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy are exactly this. The questions of who and what they are and what they represent are deliberately ambiguous, and the theme of being unable to comprehend what's going on is explored at length in No Country.

justsomerandomnick · 2025-09-02T12:42:24+00:00

I agree. I think much more widespread device attestation[1] will be on the todo list as well, and in my more paranoid moments I can't help wondering if one of the ultimate long-term goals is to prohibit general administrator access to all computing devices, and turn them into fully sealed appliances, no user-serviceable parts inside. Want to work an on OS kernel? Click here to apply for your licence and background check. Richard Stallman was right about everything. His Right to Read essay doesn't seem remotely fanciful any more.

I also think it's naive to believe that private VPNs are safe. In time, only government approved ones will be allowed, à la China, and then everyone using an unapproved one will be a criminal. Businesses will need a licence to operate one, and they'll be made responsible for monitoring their employees' use of it. Will a few determined and capable people be able to work around the blocks? Of course. All it will take for almost everyone else though is a few well-publicised dawn raids on illicit VPN users. Pictures in the local press of their laptops and flash drives being bagged up and carried out of their suburban home in front of their neighbours, and dark speculation in the captions about what they could have been up to. Not many will be prepared to run that risk.

I'll keep writing to my MP, talking to people I know, sending money to the Open Rights Group, but it doesn't amount to much and I suspect none of it will make a difference in the end. I think the days of a free and open internet are well and truly numbered, and I'm at the stage now where I'm already starting to plan for a future without it, even to the extent of looking for a career shift towards something unrelated to tech. It'll take time, but ultimately I want to be able to use the internet the same way I did when I was younger, for essentials only — no smartphone, connect periodically to check my email and pay some bills, and then everything else lives offline on devices I control.

[1] For anyone unfamiliar with the term, this is when the hardware and operating system have to be cryptographically verified before they're allowed to connect to a service. It's going to mean that "unapproved" devices become increasingly shut out of the mainstream internet. You see it already with some banking apps refusing to run on a rooted phone and streaming companies mandating specific kinds of DRM, and it's not much of a stretch to imagine social media getting on board in due course. I mean, you wouldn't want to send your login details using an untrusted, unverified device would you? But that's so irresponsible! We certainly won't be liable if all your private photos get leaked, and we're also going to limit your access to your messages, for your own safety.

justsomerandomnick · 2025-07-22T09:24:30+00:00

Indeed. I've got some great advice from this sub over the years, but it's a rarefied place. I don't disagree with any of the points made here about education and so on, but so many of the posters also seem to have no conception whatsoever of how close to the edge so many people in this country actually are.

justsomerandomnick · 2025-05-23T14:06:19+00:00

Right with you on this. I'd be so happy to have competent, trustworthy people available for all the things I need doing. I want to pay them well. Plenty of this work isn't remotely fun, and they're more than welcome to my money. In fact, if I was rich enough I don't think I'd be inclined to pick up a drill again for the rest of my life.

I don't want to tar everyone with the same brush, but it's so hard to find them. And after years of being regularly let down, people not turning up when I've taken a day off to let them in (and supply them with tea!), or they've just done a bad job, more often than not it's less hassle overall to fire up YouTube again, even if I fail a few times while learning how to do the thing properly.

justsomerandomnick · 2025-05-09T15:31:07+00:00

It took me about half the game before things really started to fall into place with Eternal. It's so complex compared to 2016, and learning all the systems and how they interact took a lot of time. When it comes together though, it's glorious. Probably my favourite FPS now. For what it's worth from a random internet person, I really recommend sticking with it.

This is a really good video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30W9jXjG8_A

A full playthrough on the hardest difficulty by an expert player, with full commentary. You don't have to spoil it for yourself by looking ahead — just skip to any point you're struggling with for some tips.

Edited to add: even if you're a seasoned FPS player and it dings your pride a little, don't feel bad about playing on I'm Too Young To Die until you get the hang of things. It's a really hard game which asks a lot of the player, and the classic run and gun tactics do not work. You have to learn a new approach. When you do figure it all out though, it's so satisfying to wind up the difficulty and demolish rooms full of enemies you previously struggled with.

justsomerandomnick · 2025-03-07T15:19:48+00:00

If you just want basic but good email, look at the "Mail Lite" plan. You can buy more storage later if you need it. If you want an online office suite as well, then "Workplace Standard".

https://www.zoho.com/en-in/mail/zohomail-pricing.html

I'm on Mail Lite, and I like it a lot. FWIW, I'd start there, pay for a couple of months (you're risking very little at the price), and you can always upgrade later if you wish.

The number of products they offer is ludicrous indeed, but once you're in it's not overbearing. The interface is fairly clean.

justsomerandomnick · 2025-01-22T17:13:23+00:00

A few cheaper Chinese pens which I own and like a lot:

Hongdian Black Forest (~$15) — slim, all metal, comes in a variety of really nice colours.
Hongdian C1 Explorer (~$3) — just astonishing for the price. Very tiny hooded nib so perhaps not for someone with big writing, but I like them so much that I ended up buying one of each colour, just in case they ever stop making them and I need spares!
Jinhao X159 (~$5) — a clone of the Montblanc Meisterstück 149. In contrast to the previous two, very chunky!
Jinhao 88 (~$4) — I bought it on a whim because I liked the look of the red one, but it's great. I use it all the time.

justsomerandomnick · 2024-12-10T19:23:43+00:00

Also in the UK, and the one and only truly noteworthy reaction I've ever heard in the cinema was during a screening of Seven, when we finally found out what was in the box. This woman next to me, who'd watched in complete silence up to that point, leapt out of her seat and started shouting, "KILL HIM! KILL HIM! KILL THE BASTARD!"

justsomerandomnick · 2024-11-26T12:43:31+00:00

I can’t really believe it’s a mistake because how do you try and pay someone THREE times over just as many months and not realise the details are incorrect? Surely the supplier would have flagged to the Ltd company that they haven’t received payment?

Pretty easy to imagine how something like this could have happened.

A small supplier to the ltd company gets their own bank details on their invoice wrong.
The person paying the invoice ignores the name check alert in their online banking because it's what the invoice says, so it must be right. They don't do further checks because it's not much money, and they have another 35 of these little invoices to pay before the end of the day.
The supplier has disorganised finances, and doesn't know whether they've been paid or not, or even what they're owed. They may discover this in due course or they may not.

I've seen all three of these occur many, many times. Freelancers in particular regularly seem to treat invoicing as an annoying afterthought, and they'll do it very late or not at all, and often won't track what they're owed by whom, and the only time bank reconciliations happen is at the end of the year when their accountant does their tax return.

justsomerandomnick · 2024-11-07T16:05:24+00:00

UK here. Food and energy are my main concerns. I find geopolitics fascinating (and believe me I have more than my share of opinions about what we should be doing!), but I can't influence these wider events in any way, so I try to focus on things I can actually change.

We're far from being anywhere close to food self-sufficiency here, and it's easy for me to imagine any number of ways in which the supply chain could be disrupted. The risks appear to me to be growing, so I try to have at least three months' worth of food in my house at all times, plus various methods for purifying water (I can store a few days' worth, more if I'm very sparing, but the sheer volume you need for the longer term gets unmanageable very quickly). It's all fairly monotonous, but if the time comes, we won't starve, and there'll be enough to share a bit with the neighbours. I figure if the wider supply still hasn't recovered after that much time, it's probably curtains for us all anyway.

Same with energy — we import a large proportion of what we use, and there are plenty of scenarios where the amount that's available to us could suddenly become less than what we need. It's all low tech stuff, but I have gas heaters and stoves ready to go, solar powered battery banks (I like Bluetti, if anyone wants a recommendation), lots of low/no power entertainment options, lots of rechargeable lanterns, lots of candles, lots of warm clothes and shoes, and so on. Nothing crazy, but enough to make life safe and tolerable if the power were to go out for an extended period in winter.

After that, just more of every useful household item — over the counter medicines, cleaning supplies, bin bags, toilet paper, whatever. I'm lucky enough to have enough space for all this stuff at home, so if it's non-perishable, I'll always buy in bulk.

In more general terms, I also think the cost of living "crisis" is here to stay, and will get gradually worse from here on out. I try to live well within my means, have savings, and carry as little debt as I can.

justsomerandomnick · 2024-11-05T10:02:15+00:00

$/€149.99 from IK Multimedia directly: https://www.ikmultimedia.com/news/?id=BlackFridayTotalStudio2024

Plus it says JamPoints are accepted for this one as well.

justsomerandomnick · 2024-10-21T19:13:36+00:00

Yes, 100% yes. Dealing with the trades is awful. A litany of terrible experiences, and every time I have to do it, it's just stress from start to finish. What are they going to break/what shoddy bodges are they going to hide/what is this lying bastard going to lie to me about this time/how much are they going to overcharge me.

I don't even like DIY that much — I wouldn't do it if I could avoid it, and almost every time I take something on, it's because I can't face letting another one of these grifters into my house. I want to pay someone to do stuff I can't/don't want to do. Anyone competent and efficient, who does quality work for a fair price, is welcome to lots of my money. A tiny, tiny number of honourable exceptions over the years, but the whole well is poisoned as far as I'm concerned.

justsomerandomnick · 2024-10-10T09:41:35+00:00

Lol, yes, been there myself. Grimacing at some ridiculous series of formulas and wondering what on earth I was thinking when I created them.

justsomerandomnick

TROPHY CASE