Ah well, nevertheless.

Based admin.

I am actually in favor of tariffs in a couple of limited situations:

1. Foreign goods are cheap due to non-existent labor laws

2. Foreign goods are cheap, but produce more emissions than domestic manufacturing

#2 is also called a carbon border adjustment mechanism, or CBAM, and the EU voted to implement one last year that goes into effect in 2026. The USA desperately needs one IMHO. I’m involved in a nonprofit that’s been lobbying Congress to implement our own CBAM.

It’s silly though to think that a tariff is anything but a tax. It’s not any different than any other way that we use our tax laws to try to regulate “pure” capitalism by encouraging certain behavior and discouraging other behavior.

I thought Republicans were the anti-tax party?

goodbye

Seems like people have been doing this enough that companies have started to disable the functionality. Comcast will just hang up on you nowadays if you spam zero.

My trick lately to speed things up with Comcast is just go straight to cancellations. I always immediately get a human on the phone. I them tell them what I’m actually calling about, and they will then transfer me to the correct department.

I do this at work whenever I ssh into a server.

Streams flac. Good supplement to piracy. I might switch to Qobuz sometime, but it works well for now.

https://youtu.be/Fow7iUaKrq4

Please just don’t let the Cart Narc have a scandal. His work is too important.

For me digital wallet is a bit more convenient than using my real wallet, but not essential. I have one credit card that I use all the time, but it seems my bank hasn’t bothered to make it work with NFC payments yet for some reason, but it works with Google Wallet so that’s nice.

I also always keep my wallet with credit cards and a little bit of cash as a backup. One time I was out at a bar and there was a power outage. They were still serving drinks, but instantly all transactions switched to cash only. I think it makes a lot of sense to have backup options.

The opposite can be good too – your phone as a backup just in case you forget your wallet.

It’s probably not entirely been worth the effort to stay up to date with changes whenever Google breaks things. At some point I may stop. I guess one immediate value has been that watching things unfold has hastened the souring of my view on Google. I am now frequently looking for ways to avoid their ecosystem, and avoid big companies / non open source in general. I’m far from ready to leave the ecosystem on every front. But at the very least, I would never recommend a Google product in my professional life at this point, at least not without careful planning of an exit strategy.

In the Mood for Love is phenomenal.

Eat Drink Man Woman is one I’ve re watched a number of times.

I wouldn’t say either are movies everybody needs to watch, but they are great movies.

I remember watching this when I was 9 years old and feeling vaguely traumatized.

Could be they want to hit a certain category (groceries) on the card. Maybe they are also trying to meet minimum spend on a new card.

For those who shop a lot on Amazon, the Chase Amazon Visa is probably worth it since it always gets 5-6%, but if you don’t have that card, using gift cards to hit a grocery category seems reasonable. Slightly more hassle, but at least you can split purchases on Amazon.

I really enjoyed all 4 seasons.

It’s very character driven, which I know isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I enjoyed seeing characters grow and change through the seasons and loved the way the show moved through different eras of technology.

Oh yeah??? Well I love flying and packing and traveling and free handjobs when TSA thinks my belt looks suspicious, but I hate the emissions that contribute to climate change.

That makes sense, thanks.

Even with a free forum host, it’s difficult to keep things running for a long time.

Awhile back I was unsatisfied with how quickly my (new) furniture was degrading, and found a furniture forum run by a guy in the biz. So much knowledge on there about different furniture and how to actually find quality stuff that will last decades.

The owner retired this week, and he had been paying for an IT contract to do basic maintenance / upgrades on the forum (I think he started on a free host, but as it got bigger he eventually had to move it). He needed IT help basically to apply security patches and do upgrades. He’s stated that he no longer plans to pay for the maintenance contract. I’m guessing the forum will disappear soon.

Your problem is engaging with these people.

I’ve had a mostly positive experience on here, but I don’t try to go hang out in tankieville.

Is there someone who understands / can explain the tax principles behind the removal? I see the term impairment charge mentioned in the article. Best I can tell, the company is saying their book value is higher than the actual value of the item, so they can take the loss and write it off. But why does that necessitate removing it?

Is this also the reason that Disney used to put stuff into “the vault” back in the day?

I’m all on board with piracy-first (I don’t even bother to figure out how to pay for movies/TV anymore because piracy is so much more convenient), but I want to be able to explain to a layman why things are getting worse.