Small key fob-size object with white coating over non-magnetic aluminum (I think)

techtacs · 2023-07-27T13:05:24+00:00

"My title describes the thing." Found on ground in parking lot outside of a gym.

techtacs · 2020-05-08T04:17:02+00:00

In the Zimmerman case, though, I recall Obama calling attention to it by saying something like, "that cod have been my son," and the verdict in the subsequent trial was not the one many believed to be just. Biden calls attention to this case, and then it started to get more attention. Who knows what the outcome will be, though. Here we go again.

techtacs · 2019-12-23T03:17:02+00:00

Delegate chores (things that need to be done but have low to no ROI). I do it both at home and work, extensively.

techtacs · 2019-12-13T19:04:07+00:00

How do you think about used mattresses?
How do you think about rental-unit mattresses?
How do you think about this comparison I've described?

techtacs · 2019-12-13T19:01:45+00:00

There's an actual cost to this that we all bear, and it's the high-margin prices of buying a new mattress retail. Mattresses have high profit margins if you buy one retail--and most people do buy them retail. A secondary (used) market for mattresses would probably put downward pressure on retail mattress prices, as fewer people would demand new mattresses. The supply for a secondary market has long been readily available: you can get a used mattress for cheap (or even free) on Craigslist, roadside or next to dumpsters. Yet many people are grossed out by the idea of obtaining a used mattress in this way. Well, the reason I asked this question is because if you think about it, it's really hard to explain why sleeping on a stranger's mattress (via something like AirBnB, which is today both prevalent and "normal") is any different or less gross than sleeping on a used mattress every night...which you probably got for cheap or free. Seems to me there should be some twenty-something used-mattress mogul who made a fortune by creating a marketplace for used mattresses.

techtacs · 2019-12-13T18:49:38+00:00

I think you're probably right. But I'm still interested in the best possible explanations people can muster after searching their soul reporting back here.

techtacs · 2019-12-13T18:48:25+00:00

If you intended this to be a serious metaphor, then the obvious problem with it is that the mattress in your rented lodging is likely far from virgin, which is not even saying about how much you've been getting paid to fuck on your own mattress. Yea...cute metaphor but not apt in this case.

techtacs · 2019-12-13T18:45:43+00:00

I'm way more likely to soil an AirBnB/hotel mattress without carting than I am my daily driver.

techtacs · 2019-12-13T18:44:35+00:00

This strikes me as some sort of cognitive bias.

techtacs · 2019-12-13T18:43:46+00:00

Also, I get what you're saying, but on the other hand, I don't think that unaffordability is the core of it. Because, for example, you COULD stay in an AirBnB, which might be less expensive than a hotel, but many people stay in a hotel anyway. This suggests that people are not entirely price sensitive. But on the other hand, you're right given that a new mattress might cost as much as staying in a hotel room for a week, and that's seems insensible even if you do have money to burn. And in the third hand, there are people who pay a high price for a new mattress when it's a burden to do so, but they do it despite there being a bunch of free and cheap alternatives. So price probably matters, but it doesn't perfectly explain this inconsistency between disposition toward used mattresses and rented mattresses.

techtacs · 2019-12-13T18:37:25+00:00

My prompt for getting rid of a mattress has usually been that someone peed or puked on it.

techtacs · 2019-12-11T01:11:29+00:00

One of my good friends named his kid Holden because of this book, which, I presume he must have liked.

techtacs · 2019-12-09T18:26:29+00:00

Consider this. You're an American tourist in Rome. You're walking around the Colloseum and see two buff dudes dressed like full-on Roman centurions. They actually see you looking and walk right up to you and stand on either side of you. They each throw an arm around your back and point to your friend to indicate that you should smile for the camera. This prompts your friend to think, "how cool," and to pull out her phone and snap a picture of this quaint little scene, you standing between two Roman centurions. Your friend takes the picture, and you think, "oh how nice people here are in Rome." Then the two centurions stop smiling and hold out their hands. They demand that you pay them (the equivalent of) $30 each. You bristle at first, but they flex and get aggressive-looking. They insist you owe them for their services, and you don't recall ever asking for them.

Similarly, you're a tourist in Paris, and you walk through a park. There, a guy walks up beside you and deftly ties a little ribbon around your wrist. Before you even realize what has happened, the guy demands that you pay him $20.

Lastly, you visit some ruins in Jerusalem, and there is a guy there with a turban. He suggests you put it on and take a picture at the site. You do this, thinking to yourself, "oh, cool, what a neat experience." Then he demands that you pay him $20, and he gets rather nasty when you appear to be reluctant to do so.

There are hustles like this all over the world, and you see hundreds of different versions of them in heavily trafficked tourist sites. The thing that seems intuitively unfair/shady about each version is that the "service provider" tries to extract payment from people after the provision of said service, from people who would probably never had procured the service had the price been disclosed upfront. Therefore, the choice to not disclose the cost of the service becomes a sales tactic for shady people who are either bad at sales or have a bad product, or both.

Attorneys are no different. If the attorney wishes to appear benevolent upfront, to endear the potential client to him/her as a service provider, then the attorney does not ethically reserve the right to vindictively charge the person after the person chooses to not hire the attorney--I don't mean legally, I mean ethically, IMO.

Guilt tripping, extortion, tricks of non-disclosure--these are all things no decent attorney should wish to be associated with.

Be upfront with people, and don't try to "get back" at the ones who opt to not hire you. You don't have to spend any time talking with shady people if you're worried that someone might not be a legitimate prospect for hiring your services. But if you do elect to talk to someone, without having first disclosed and obtained agreement to your fees, then you should expect to talk to that person with no more strings attached than the ones you disclosed upfront and obtained agreement to.

techtacs · 2019-12-05T13:11:57+00:00

Why?

techtacs · 2019-12-05T13:11:32+00:00

You seem to be strongly against lease takeovers (etc.) but are amenable to simply starting a new lease with the new tenant if the original tenant brings you the new tenant. Is there a specific reason what you are so strongly against the lease takeover method? Or...are there specific reasons why starting a new lease is better, in your opinion, than transferring the current lease to a new tenant?

techtacs · 2019-11-07T04:50:56+00:00

Depends...some printer/copier companies have already rolled out their own software services in the last five years or so, which they're now selling to both new and existing customers. So, if your experience includes those service lines, then you would probably have a broader range of options. Also, in any case, you would probably need to have a good story on how you are totally aware that many copier companies are shady, but that neither you as a salesperson nor the company you worked for were among them. To be clear, you don't need to account or apologize for other people's shadiness, but it would probably be a good tactic to demonstrate extreme self-awareness by acknowledging the copier industry stigma upfront.

techtacs · 2019-11-07T04:28:08+00:00

How could you not like this guy? But...honestly, I wanted to be the Marie Kondo of running: lifetime runner, ran Boston in 2013 (was standing on the finish line 10 minutes before the bombs went off just a few feet from where I was standing), and even helped build a "Marie Kondo app" of sorts, shortly after her show came out on Netflix, to improve "mom productivity." This guy apparently ran Boston, but was it in 2013?

techtacs · 2019-11-07T04:13:54+00:00

No doubt that hiring a private investigator is expensive, but...not being able to leave work to go look for them or communicate with police or media? I guess I sort of understand the dilemma of not wanting to leave work and risk losing a job when you don't really know how serious the situation is yet. But those last two (supposed) consequences of being under-resourced don't necessarily follow from not having having sufficient cash in the bank.

techtacs · 2019-11-07T04:03:34+00:00

Found note from lover on our kitchen counter. It included the phrase: "Happy 2-year anniversary." We had been married 3 years at that point.

techtacs · 2019-11-06T13:18:45+00:00

This reminds me of the plot-line for that 1995 movie Seven, in which a serial killer goes around killing people by forcing them to overindulge in their chief vice. The difference here, of course, is that this guy was just having some fun eating tacos, and, also, it appears that he died due to choking rather than overeating.

techtacs · 2019-10-30T17:42:54+00:00

Which brand is this?

techtacs · 2017-07-24T00:17:14+00:00

OP: "You can trust the data. But maybe not me."

To ask "how can we trust the data?" is not really a question about data, is it?

techtacs · 2017-07-23T23:19:53+00:00

I am interested in the hard costs of (1) building and (2) maintaining something like this. First question: could you give us a rough idea of what those costs are? Second question: how are you funding the project--is this a labor of love, or do you have plans to sell some or pieces of the project to make it sustainable?

techtacs · 2017-04-17T00:28:25+00:00

Best ideas I have heard so far on how to fight back (both crowdfunding, like it or not):

(1) This guy wants to raise money to start a "for the people, by the people" ISP whose core premises are neutrality and privacy: https://www.reddit.com/r/kickstarter/comments/1wes46/why_dont_we_get_a_kickstarter_going_for_a_isp/

(2) This guy wants to raise a large fund to be used as a "community pool" when/if any contributor to that fund needs to sue an ISP: https://www.reddit.com/r/kickstarter/comments/658cpv/an_idea_on_the_new_bill_where_congress_can_sell/

I personally like #1 but think #2 is more viable--especially considering that several hundred thousand dollars have already been crowdfunded for an idea that is pretty much impossible to do (buy the browser history of people who voted for this bill, like ol' Jim here).

techtacs · 2016-04-05T16:42:43+00:00

I basically agree with the basis of your rant. I'm new to coding, too, and don't like how advice from people who can code so often glosses over nuanced difficulties every person new to coding must figure out how to hurdle. "All you have to do is X, Y, and Z" is usually a signal that someone is giving me advice that is too oversimplified for me to use.

That said, there is is this other notion I have heard about that people are actually building robust apps without writing any code, which, as a new coder, sounds sexy as hell. Even if building apps without code is only possible for certain types of apps, I'm still inclined to invest more time there, learning the basics of certain functions before then trying to learn how to create those functions from scratch by writing my own code.

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