ghaff

31 ms·

631.
by ghaff 8mo ago
Both my housekeeper and contractor use checks and, while I could get the bank to "write" them checks, it's easier to just hand them a piece of paper. I've also needed to pay my neighbor something from time to time and it
632.
by ghaff 8mo ago
State taxes can be a bit of a mess, E&Y (accountants) were enlisted to started looking at expense reports at a long-ago former employer to be sure people were staying within the guidelines. There are "jock" taxes mainly intend
633.
by ghaff 8mo ago
In fairness, manufacturer rebates have pretty much (mercifully) disappeared in the US as well as they were basically a scheme to mentally make you account for a lower price you wouldn't end up being rebated for various reasons.
634.
by ghaff 8mo ago
And you still need bank branches every now and then for various things. Still don't understand how various expansive bank branches are profitable.
635.
by ghaff 8mo ago
I think this one had a battery replacement because it was bulging. But it's definitely in the class of devices that, if it gets swiped or lost, is basically in the <ehh> category as opposed to my newer one. Am probably giving new
636.
by ghaff 8mo ago
I'm in the US and things are definitely less check-centric than they used to be but I still probably write or receive a couple a month.
637.
by ghaff 8mo ago
I use a 2015 MacBook Pro all the time--like right now. It does have 16GB of memory. It's what sits on my dining room table where I do most of my writing/browsing and which I take for travel. I do have an Apple Silicon MacBook Pro
638.
by ghaff 8mo ago
I would say the opposite. If you don't want your activity public, don't put it on the Internet.
639.
by ghaff 8mo ago
Well, and hard drives fail and there weren't really great economical backup options at the time. In spite of being active on one BBS in particular, I basically have nothing digital saved from that time.
640.
by ghaff 8mo ago
There was also a locality to BBSs (less so the distributed relay systems like Fidonet) because of the cost of non-local telephone calls. I was a subscriber to a BBS is a relatively nearby city (though telephone costs were still high--used o
641.
by ghaff 8mo ago
We may have different interests and networks. Pretty much everyone I know has moved on. I don't even look at it any longer.
642.
by ghaff 8mo ago
Once you hit publish, it's public and anyone and everyone can save a copy and distribute it. If you don't like that, don't hit publish.
643.
by ghaff 8mo ago
For whatever faults the old Twitter had pre-Musk, it did establish a certain critical mass for a certain type of short form threaded discussion which seems to be largely dead at this point.
644.
by ghaff 8mo ago
Without researching actual numbers, it feels like that whole category of social media is pretty much uninteresting at this point. Not sure what really replaces it given that Facebook seems increasingly infested with AI slop and sponsored po
645.
by ghaff 8mo ago
As someone who was once an avid twitter user, my sense is that Mastodon--after a somewhat hopeful start just never gained the network momentum. Bluesky came closest to Twitter's old reach but is still something of a shadow of the old T
646.
by ghaff 8mo ago
Totally. You have the local time at the time of the event, you have current US time, and you have current European time. Yes, computers can handle a lot of this but a lot of people are working off the local times for the event--and I'v
647.
by ghaff 8mo ago
You sort of can with very little work. When I used RSS more I had a "primary" folder and a number of secondary folders. I always looked at the primary; I'd dip into various secondaries when I had the time. I do sort of agree
648.
by ghaff 8mo ago
I sort of need public contact info. Maybe I obfuscate a bit on my site though I would need to look. Modern hosted email systems seem pretty good at filtering the real spam. But I also need to coordinate with folks with respect to conference
649.
by ghaff 8mo ago
I find that Gmail with tabs and filters honestly works pretty well. I find the (few) things that end up in my Primary tab are mostly things that I want to see. I keep my eye on Updates because there are sometimes, umm, updates that I want t
650.
by ghaff 8mo ago
Lots of us got pizzas delivered now and then especially in college and, if you lived somewhere like NYC, maybe Chinese. But this idea that you'd starve without food delivery in general is simply odd.
651.
by ghaff 8mo ago
This whole thread is somewhat hilarious. It's full of reasons why expensive food deliveries are really the only reasonable option.
652.
by ghaff 8mo ago
I certainly eat at restaurants. In general I find there are enough compromises associated with delivered food that it's not worth it. You're basically reheating lukewarm food whatever the packaging. (And I don't live in a cit
653.
by ghaff 8mo ago
Laziness. I don't have much sympathy for a $50 food delivery. I've gotten takeout in my life--basically never delivery. ADDED: Not feeling like they can sounds like learned helplessness to me. Might not be a bad interview question
654.
by ghaff 8mo ago
Why do people need those delivery services? Why can't they just cook meals at home like most people do?
655.
by ghaff 8mo ago
Yeah, I think my neighbor has a few Cortland trees in New England. Lots of Mcintoshes which aren't great for cooking but generally good for eating. Apples are probably about the last thing I'd say you couldn't get varieties o
656.
by ghaff 8mo ago
Funnily enough, I just got a bunch of one hour computer schedule changes for a European event in late March. I assume this is related to Daylight Savings vs. Standard Time. I'm sure I'll work it out once I'm over there.
657.
by ghaff 8mo ago
During the warmer months I regularly come into town for a sidewalk dinner in an east coast city in the US. There's a protected bike lane and the combination of vehicles (and pedestrians crossing) is a bit terrifying--as is the fact tha
658.
by ghaff 8mo ago
Yes. Don't know if I'll make it again on my upcoming trip--missed the Van Gogh last time because it was sold out but have tickets this time. It always amazes me how quickly schedules fill up. Doesn't help that I'm also w
659.
by ghaff 8mo ago
It's very common for conferences and the like to use shorthand like PT or ET. The reality is that once you start specifying standard time or daylight savings time, the people writing the announcement regularly mess up. I don't rem
660.
by ghaff 8mo ago
em-dashes have been house style for where I've worked for over a couple decades. If people don't like it, F them. I'm not going to change how I write because people may think it make me more AI-like.

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