I did not wake up until 8:00am PDT, which is 11:00am EDT and after the outage was fixed. In any case, I do not participate in any social networking. So the outage (and the prior outages) had zero impact on me.
The article indicates Sidewalk Labs' database will involve data obtained by tracking mobile phones. I do not have even a dumb phone. If others are using their phones to tag, photograph, or otherwise track me, I do not see those data being used by Sidewalk Labs. After all, what is the value of non-continuous tracking an unknown person though multiple phones.
I do not have even a dumb phone, let alone a smart phone. I do not need 24/7 connection to other people or to the Internet. Thus, my activities would not be tracked.
All this reminds me of the polling for a U.S. presidential election during the 1930s. The poll predicted a Republican win against Franklin Roosevelt. The problem was that the poll was conducted entirely by phone. The pollster was thus talking to those who, during the Great Depression, could afford phones -- mostly Republicans. Data from Sidewalk Labs' will be similarly biased, this time in favor of those who are slaves to their mobile phones.
The cited Gizmodo article at https://gizmodo.com/how-cartog... clearly indicates that geolocation from IP addresses is not accurate. The article contained a link to a Web page at What Is My IP Address that does geolocation for the IP address of whoever visits that Web page. While What Is My IP Address did get my correct IP address and correctly placed me in California, it also placed me in the wrong county with the wrong ZIP code about 4 miles away from my true location.
I tried three other Web-based geolocation services. GeoIP first placed me in Missiouri; when I reloaded the Web page, it then placed me in New Jersey. Reloading justmyip placed me in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Tokyo, Japan; and La Roda, Spain. Both GeoIP and justmyip repeatedly got my IP address wrong. IP2Location placed me in California with the correct IP address but about 7 miles from my true location, in the same county as reported by What Is My IP Address but an even different ZIP code.
> Studies generally suggest that, year after year, less than 60 percent of web traffic is human; some years, > according to some researchers, a healthy majority of it is bot.
I frequently visit Web pages that are bot-generated. Among them are price quotes for stocks, daily weather data (rainfall, temperature, wind speed, etc), and what checks have cleared my checking account. These are not human-generated.
The problem is with bots that visit Web sites. Even there, not all bots are bad. After all, without crawler bots, search engines could not tell you what Chinese restaurants are in your ZIP code.
Those interested should also look at http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/, the Web site for the Climate Prediction Center. This has predictions of rainfall and temperatures in the short-term, medium-term, next month, and next three months. It also has links to drought maps, both the subject "United States Drought Monitor" and maps predicting the evolution of droughts for the current month and the next three months.
U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8: The Congress shall have Power To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
I believe in the benefits of copyrights. However, the current state of intellectual law is unacceptable. Extending copyright coverage to 90 years (Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998) violates the concept of "limited Times". The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) stifles innovation instead of promoting it. And the primary beneficiaries of these laws are not "Authors and Inventors" but corporate publishers, movie studios, and record companies who reap the bounty of others' creativity. If you agree that this situation is intolerable, tell your representatives and senators in Congress.
I have never owned any kind of mobile phone. My wife has a dumb phone, which we used while we were evacuated from southern California's Woolsey Fire.
Our land-line phone at home (copper line, POTS) is self-powered by AT&T. When Southern California Edison (SoCalEd) goes down -- which happens several times a year -- VoIP (voice over Internet phone) dies as do those cell-phone antennas whose backup power systems have not been recently serviced. AT&T, however, remains available for me to call SoCalEd to report their outage.
Our land-line phone gave us assurance that our house was still standing during the Woolsey Fire. We were able to call our house. The answering machine on the second floor answered, which meant that our house was okay and we even still had electricity. We know that Internet service (including VoIP) through Spectrum and some cell antennas were lost during the fire. In our community, however, the copper phone lines are all underground.
No, I am not a Luddite. My entire career was in computer software. I just like to get away from the phone when I leave my house.
In the late 1960s, I was employed as a programmer by a subcontractor at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California. That was before the Voyager satellites were launched. I wrote part of the software that would later be used to track and collect data from the Voyager ssatellites. I also wrote part of the software used by the project management to schedule tasks in the development and launches of the satellites.
Is there anyone else reading this who participated in the Voyager project before they were launched?
I live in an urban area served by Southern California Edison (SoCalEd). Without fire, earthquake, or severe weather, SoCalEd fails more than once each year. When there is an interruption in electricity -- whether it is for 5 seconds or 5 hours -- my Internet service through Spectrum dies, sometime for over an hour after a 5 minute interruption of electricity.
Many Internet-connected devices require electricity. New York City also experiences occasional interruptions of electrical service. How does a cashless restaurant get paid when that happens?
I have a Keytronic wired E6101U1 on my PC. I have tried others, and either they did not last or were not really suitable for my use. I chose Keytronic because:
* My wife's PC has a Keytronic on her PC, which was purchased more than 6 years ago. The keyboard is still in excellent condition.
* The E6101U1 is beige with black labeling on each key. This is easier to use than white labeling on black keys.
* The 12 function keys at the top are in groups of 4 with a space between each group. This allows me to find the function key I want without having to look at the keyboard.
* The Enter key is quite large. I cannot miss it.
* The shift keys are large (but not at large as the Enter key). Those too cannot be missed.
* The keys are all concave. I know by feel when my finger is centered on a key.
* The back of the keyboard has feet to provide a good tilt.
* The keyboard is straight, not curved. I learned typing on a manual typewriter some 60 years ago, when all keyboards were straight. I am a long-time touch-typist, and I could not comfortably use a curved keyboard.
* I still pound keys hard because that was necessary with a manual typewriter. This does not seem to affect my keyboard.
I have accounts at both a major, nation-wide credit union and a not-so-large regional bank. I pay NO fees to either financial institution.
Most of my "banking" is with the credit union, including my credit card. Through the Co-Op Network of credit unions, I can get cash without any fee from ATMs at most other credit unions as well as at a local drug store and a nearby convenience grocery. I can actually go into some credit unions where I do not have an account and make a deposit to the credit union where I have my account. This is through the Service Center network of credit unions. (Picture going into Wells Fargo to make a deposit to a Bank of America account.)
I write checks against my account at the real bank when I think I might need the cancelled check in the future. That is because a federal law prohibits credit unions from returning cancelled checks. (Instead of the checks, my real bank sends a page with images of the front and back of each cancelled check with my monthly statement.) Another service provided by my real bank that I have not seen at any credit union is that I have rented a safe deposit box. For that reason, I chose a bank that is nearby. The box is larger but costs less than the box I used to have at Wells Fargo. Do any Neo-Banks have physical offices nearby with physical safe deposit boxes?
That is supported by a blog post at https://threatpost.com/critica.... It would be appreciated if people would learn the difference between a server and a client.
The main problem with flu shots is that they target a particular variety of influenza. Too often, that is the wrong variety for the pending influenza season.
Last season (2017-2018), my wife and I got our flu shots early in the fall. In the week just before New Year 2018, we both thought we were coming down with colds. The day after New Year, we felt sick enough to see our family doctor, who swabbed high in our noses. After dinner, he called us to tell us we tested positive for influenza.
Later that same night (still 2 January), my wife could not stop coughing. Since she had a heart problem (now fixed), I suggested that I should take her to the local hospital's emergency room. She did not want to go, but I insisted. She was hospitalized for a week with pneumonia although we were both current with both kinds of pneumonia shots. (According to our doctor, the two types of shots only protect against about 60% of the types of pneumonia.)
Each year, we still get our flu shots in the hope that, this time, the shots are targeting the variety of influenza that will be going around. My wife got her flu shot in August, and I got mine the beginning of this month (September).
An attempt to develop a universal flu shot is underway. The goal is not to target any one variety of influenza but instead to protect against all varieties.
Several years ago, I discovered that Facebook cookies were being set on my PC whenever I logged-in to my accounts at the credit unions (2) and bank (1) where I have accounts. I was surprised since I do not have a Facebook account and do not want one.
I then found that practice was contrary to the published privacy policies of all three financial institutions. I sent postal letters to all three. Two of them changed their Web site such that no Facebook cookies were being set.
After a repeated letter to the third institution resulted in no correction in 6 months, I wrote to the institution's federal regulatory agency requesting an enforcement action to make the institution comply with their own privacy policy. Now, none of the three Web sites set Facebook cookies.
I am still using Windows 7, not Windows 10. I log all the updates to Windows and associated Microsoft products. When I review my logs, I see a large number of updates replacing prior updates.
Starting at the beginning of 2014 (when I had to have Windows 7 re-installed), 69 updates were replaced. Three of 69 replacement updates were subsequently also replaced. One of those re-replacements was even again replaced.
At the moment, I am holding up the update for KB4338818, which causes unacceptably adverse “Known issues in this update”. Those issues are supposed to be fixed by an update for KB4338821, which has not yet been released.
Having spent 30+ years as a software test engineer testing software used by the U.S. military to operate its space satellites, I can tell that Microsoft relies too much on its customers to be unpaid testers. This is why I have always disabled the Windows automatic update capability. It seems that Microsoft's record with Windows 10 updates is no better.
My last job was with TRW. The work was interesting. My coworkers were friendly. The managers knew how to manage. The company treated me very well. Except possibly when I worked at UCLA at the beginning of my career, TRW was the most positive employment experience I had.
I was at TRW six years, during whichI had the commute from Hell. It took 2.5 hours to travel the 42 miles to home, an average speed of less than 20 miles per hour. Although I was taking not one but two prescriptions for high blood pressure, my blood pressure was out of control. Yes, going to and from a very enjoyable job was killing me.
TRW was bought up by Northrop Grumman. This meant that cashing out my pension (an option at TRW) would soon not be an option (not allowed at Northrop Grumman). However, Northrop Grumman committed to retaining TRW's benefit policies for two years. As soon as my Excel spreadsheets indicated I could afford to retire I did. I was not quite 62. Because interest rates were low (but not as low as today), my cash-out was high. My blood pressure dropped almost immediately.
Retirement is the best work of all. I have been at it 15 years. I recommend it highly.
The second paragraph of the SlashDot article states there are only two arthropods (insects and their relatives) that actually infest humans. In addition to the follicle mites cited as eyelash mites in other replies, botfly larvae are another. And botflies are actual insects. Rare but not unknown are also human infestations by blowflies and screwflies. Search Wikipedia for "Myiasis".
Several years ago, I co-authored a book -- a photo history -- of the southern California community where I have lived for over 40 years. I reviewed old photographs of the area. I also recalled hiking over a hill into an adjacent empty valley that is now filled with houses.
The interesting thing about all this is that what used to be open meadows with widely spaced trees is now so filled with trees that distant views are blocked. Almost every house has at least one large tree. Many houses have several. I have three large trees on my property, which is about one-fifth of an acre. I also have five small or dwarf fruit trees.
My community is now completely built-out. Along the old water courses -- mostly intermittent creeks -- the land has been reserved as minimally-developed public parks with willows, cottonwoods, and centuries-old oaks. While the hill tops are public open spaces, they have no more trees than they had 50 years ago when development first started here.
The conclusion is that suburbanization does not necessarily eliminate trees. In my community, it very significantly increased the number of trees.
The article says: "a "twisted knot" of DNA in living cells confirms our complex genetic code is crafted with more intricate symmetry". Knots are never symmetric. They are either right-handed or left-handed.
When I eat in a restaurant, I usually pay for my meal with a credit card. However, I never charge a tip. Instead, I always leave a cash tip.
Why? There are several reasons.
Some restaurants divide charged tips, giving some of it to the non-service employees such as cooks and dishwashers. That way, the owner does not have to pay everyone the legal minimum wage. This practice was prohibited by the Obama administration but reinstated by Trump. I give a cash tip in an attempt to provide my server the full amount and also to force the owner to pay non-service employees properly.
When a restaurant submits my charge to its bank, there is a fee deducted from what is credited to the restaurant. Some restaurants reduce charged tips proportionally. I want the server to get the full amount, not a discounted amount.
If the total amount of a purchase is less than $10, I pay with cash, not a credit card. Whatever happened to "The customer is always right."? If they do not want my cash, I do not want their product or service.
Actually, almost half my living expenses are paid from dividends, interest, and capital gains on my investment portfolio. The other half of my living expenses are paid from a small pension and Social Security. I manage my wife's and my own portfolios as well as the portfolio in which I invested my grandson's inheritance from his deceased father.
About five hours ago (9 April 2018 10:14 UTC), bitcoin fell off a cliff. It dropped $268.36 in 18 minutes. How can anything be a currency for use in financial transactions if it is so volatile? How can you price goods and services with such volatility?
I do not own a smart phone. I do not even own a dumb phone. I can still order movie tickets from Fandango via my PC.
No, I am not a Luddite. My entire 40+ year career was in computer software. I just do not have the need to be in constant contact 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Slashdot Mirror
I did not wake up until 8:00am PDT, which is 11:00am EDT and after the outage was fixed. In any case, I do not participate in any social networking. So the outage (and the prior outages) had zero impact on me.
The article indicates Sidewalk Labs' database will involve data obtained by tracking mobile phones. I do not have even a dumb phone. If others are using their phones to tag, photograph, or otherwise track me, I do not see those data being used by Sidewalk Labs. After all, what is the value of non-continuous tracking an unknown person though multiple phones.
I do not have even a dumb phone, let alone a smart phone. I do not need 24/7 connection to other people or to the Internet. Thus, my activities would not be tracked.
All this reminds me of the polling for a U.S. presidential election during the 1930s. The poll predicted a Republican win against Franklin Roosevelt. The problem was that the poll was conducted entirely by phone. The pollster was thus talking to those who, during the Great Depression, could afford phones -- mostly Republicans. Data from Sidewalk Labs' will be similarly biased, this time in favor of those who are slaves to their mobile phones.
The cited Gizmodo article at https://gizmodo.com/how-cartog... clearly indicates that geolocation from IP addresses is not accurate. The article contained a link to a Web page at What Is My IP Address that does geolocation for the IP address of whoever visits that Web page. While What Is My IP Address did get my correct IP address and correctly placed me in California, it also placed me in the wrong county with the wrong ZIP code about 4 miles away from my true location.
I tried three other Web-based geolocation services. GeoIP first placed me in Missiouri; when I reloaded the Web page, it then placed me in New Jersey. Reloading justmyip placed me in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Tokyo, Japan; and La Roda, Spain. Both GeoIP and justmyip repeatedly got my IP address wrong. IP2Location placed me in California with the correct IP address but about 7 miles from my true location, in the same county as reported by What Is My IP Address but an even different ZIP code.
> Studies generally suggest that, year after year, less than 60 percent of web traffic is human; some years,
> according to some researchers, a healthy majority of it is bot.
I frequently visit Web pages that are bot-generated. Among them are price quotes for stocks, daily weather data (rainfall, temperature, wind speed, etc), and what checks have cleared my checking account. These are not human-generated.
The problem is with bots that visit Web sites. Even there, not all bots are bad. After all, without crawler bots, search engines could not tell you what Chinese restaurants are in your ZIP code.
Those interested should also look at http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/, the Web site for the Climate Prediction Center. This has predictions of rainfall and temperatures in the short-term, medium-term, next month, and next three months. It also has links to drought maps, both the subject "United States Drought Monitor" and maps predicting the evolution of droughts for the current month and the next three months.
U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8:
The Congress shall have Power To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
I believe in the benefits of copyrights. However, the current state of intellectual law is unacceptable. Extending copyright coverage to 90 years (Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998) violates the concept of "limited Times". The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) stifles innovation instead of promoting it. And the primary beneficiaries of these laws are not "Authors and Inventors" but corporate publishers, movie studios, and record companies who reap the bounty of others' creativity. If you agree that this situation is intolerable, tell your representatives and senators in Congress.
I have never owned any kind of mobile phone. My wife has a dumb phone, which we used while we were evacuated from southern California's Woolsey Fire.
Our land-line phone at home (copper line, POTS) is self-powered by AT&T. When Southern California Edison (SoCalEd) goes down -- which happens several times a year -- VoIP (voice over Internet phone) dies as do those cell-phone antennas whose backup power systems have not been recently serviced. AT&T, however, remains available for me to call SoCalEd to report their outage.
Our land-line phone gave us assurance that our house was still standing during the Woolsey Fire. We were able to call our house. The answering machine on the second floor answered, which meant that our house was okay and we even still had electricity. We know that Internet service (including VoIP) through Spectrum and some cell antennas were lost during the fire. In our community, however, the copper phone lines are all underground.
No, I am not a Luddite. My entire career was in computer software. I just like to get away from the phone when I leave my house.
In the late 1960s, I was employed as a programmer by a subcontractor at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California. That was before the Voyager satellites were launched. I wrote part of the software that would later be used to track and collect data from the Voyager ssatellites. I also wrote part of the software used by the project management to schedule tasks in the development and launches of the satellites.
Is there anyone else reading this who participated in the Voyager project before they were launched?
I live in an urban area served by Southern California Edison (SoCalEd). Without fire, earthquake, or severe weather, SoCalEd fails more than once each year. When there is an interruption in electricity -- whether it is for 5 seconds or 5 hours -- my Internet service through Spectrum dies, sometime for over an hour after a 5 minute interruption of electricity.
Many Internet-connected devices require electricity. New York City also experiences occasional interruptions of electrical service. How does a cashless restaurant get paid when that happens?
I have a Keytronic wired E6101U1 on my PC. I have tried others, and either they did not last or were not really suitable for my use. I chose Keytronic because:
* My wife's PC has a Keytronic on her PC, which was purchased more than 6 years ago. The keyboard is still in excellent condition.
* The E6101U1 is beige with black labeling on each key. This is easier to use than white labeling on black keys.
* The 12 function keys at the top are in groups of 4 with a space between each group. This allows me to find the function key I want without having to look at the keyboard.
* The Enter key is quite large. I cannot miss it.
* The shift keys are large (but not at large as the Enter key). Those too cannot be missed.
* The keys are all concave. I know by feel when my finger is centered on a key.
* The back of the keyboard has feet to provide a good tilt.
* The keyboard is straight, not curved. I learned typing on a manual typewriter some 60 years ago, when all keyboards were straight. I am a long-time touch-typist, and I could not comfortably use a curved keyboard.
* I still pound keys hard because that was necessary with a manual typewriter. This does not seem to affect my keyboard.
I have accounts at both a major, nation-wide credit union and a not-so-large regional bank. I pay NO fees to either financial institution.
Most of my "banking" is with the credit union, including my credit card. Through the Co-Op Network of credit unions, I can get cash without any fee from ATMs at most other credit unions as well as at a local drug store and a nearby convenience grocery. I can actually go into some credit unions where I do not have an account and make a deposit to the credit union where I have my account. This is through the Service Center network of credit unions. (Picture going into Wells Fargo to make a deposit to a Bank of America account.)
I write checks against my account at the real bank when I think I might need the cancelled check in the future. That is because a federal law prohibits credit unions from returning cancelled checks. (Instead of the checks, my real bank sends a page with images of the front and back of each cancelled check with my monthly statement.) Another service provided by my real bank that I have not seen at any credit union is that I have rented a safe deposit box. For that reason, I chose a bank that is nearby. The box is larger but costs less than the box I used to have at Wells Fargo. Do any Neo-Banks have physical offices nearby with physical safe deposit boxes?
That is supported by a blog post at https://threatpost.com/critica.... It would be appreciated if people would learn the difference between a server and a client.
The main problem with flu shots is that they target a particular variety of influenza. Too often, that is the wrong variety for the pending influenza season.
Last season (2017-2018), my wife and I got our flu shots early in the fall. In the week just before New Year 2018, we both thought we were coming down with colds. The day after New Year, we felt sick enough to see our family doctor, who swabbed high in our noses. After dinner, he called us to tell us we tested positive for influenza.
Later that same night (still 2 January), my wife could not stop coughing. Since she had a heart problem (now fixed), I suggested that I should take her to the local hospital's emergency room. She did not want to go, but I insisted. She was hospitalized for a week with pneumonia although we were both current with both kinds of pneumonia shots. (According to our doctor, the two types of shots only protect against about 60% of the types of pneumonia.)
Each year, we still get our flu shots in the hope that, this time, the shots are targeting the variety of influenza that will be going around. My wife got her flu shot in August, and I got mine the beginning of this month (September).
An attempt to develop a universal flu shot is underway. The goal is not to target any one variety of influenza but instead to protect against all varieties.
Several years ago, I discovered that Facebook cookies were being set on my PC whenever I logged-in to my accounts at the credit unions (2) and bank (1) where I have accounts. I was surprised since I do not have a Facebook account and do not want one.
I then found that practice was contrary to the published privacy policies of all three financial institutions. I sent postal letters to all three. Two of them changed their Web site such that no Facebook cookies were being set.
After a repeated letter to the third institution resulted in no correction in 6 months, I wrote to the institution's federal regulatory agency requesting an enforcement action to make the institution comply with their own privacy policy. Now, none of the three Web sites set Facebook cookies.
I am still using Windows 7, not Windows 10. I log all the updates to Windows and associated Microsoft products. When I review my logs, I see a large number of updates replacing prior updates.
Starting at the beginning of 2014 (when I had to have Windows 7 re-installed), 69 updates were replaced. Three of 69 replacement updates were subsequently also replaced. One of those re-replacements was even again replaced.
At the moment, I am holding up the update for KB4338818, which causes unacceptably adverse “Known issues in this update”. Those issues are supposed to be fixed by an update for KB4338821, which has not yet been released.
Having spent 30+ years as a software test engineer testing software used by the U.S. military to operate its space satellites, I can tell that Microsoft relies too much on its customers to be unpaid testers. This is why I have always disabled the Windows automatic update capability. It seems that Microsoft's record with Windows 10 updates is no better.
My last job was with TRW. The work was interesting. My coworkers were friendly. The managers knew how to manage. The company treated me very well. Except possibly when I worked at UCLA at the beginning of my career, TRW was the most positive employment experience I had.
I was at TRW six years, during whichI had the commute from Hell. It took 2.5 hours to travel the 42 miles to home, an average speed of less than 20 miles per hour. Although I was taking not one but two prescriptions for high blood pressure, my blood pressure was out of control. Yes, going to and from a very enjoyable job was killing me.
TRW was bought up by Northrop Grumman. This meant that cashing out my pension (an option at TRW) would soon not be an option (not allowed at Northrop Grumman). However, Northrop Grumman committed to retaining TRW's benefit policies for two years. As soon as my Excel spreadsheets indicated I could afford to retire I did. I was not quite 62. Because interest rates were low (but not as low as today), my cash-out was high. My blood pressure dropped almost immediately.
Retirement is the best work of all. I have been at it 15 years. I recommend it highly.
The second paragraph of the SlashDot article states there are only two arthropods (insects and their relatives) that actually infest humans. In addition to the follicle mites cited as eyelash mites in other replies, botfly larvae are another. And botflies are actual insects. Rare but not unknown are also human infestations by blowflies and screwflies. Search Wikipedia for "Myiasis".
Several years ago, I co-authored a book -- a photo history -- of the southern California community where I have lived for over 40 years. I reviewed old photographs of the area. I also recalled hiking over a hill into an adjacent empty valley that is now filled with houses.
The interesting thing about all this is that what used to be open meadows with widely spaced trees is now so filled with trees that distant views are blocked. Almost every house has at least one large tree. Many houses have several. I have three large trees on my property, which is about one-fifth of an acre. I also have five small or dwarf fruit trees.
My community is now completely built-out. Along the old water courses -- mostly intermittent creeks -- the land has been reserved as minimally-developed public parks with willows, cottonwoods, and centuries-old oaks. While the hill tops are public open spaces, they have no more trees than they had 50 years ago when development first started here.
The conclusion is that suburbanization does not necessarily eliminate trees. In my community, it very significantly increased the number of trees.
The article says: "a "twisted knot" of DNA in living cells confirms our complex genetic code is crafted with more intricate symmetry". Knots are never symmetric. They are either right-handed or left-handed.
When I eat in a restaurant, I usually pay for my meal with a credit card. However, I never charge a tip. Instead, I always leave a cash tip.
Why? There are several reasons.
Some restaurants divide charged tips, giving some of it to the non-service employees such as cooks and dishwashers. That way, the owner does not have to pay everyone the legal minimum wage. This practice was prohibited by the Obama administration but reinstated by Trump. I give a cash tip in an attempt to provide my server the full amount and also to force the owner to pay non-service employees properly.
When a restaurant submits my charge to its bank, there is a fee deducted from what is credited to the restaurant. Some restaurants reduce charged tips proportionally. I want the server to get the full amount, not a discounted amount.
If the total amount of a purchase is less than $10, I pay with cash, not a credit card. Whatever happened to "The customer is always right."? If they do not want my cash, I do not want their product or service.
Actually, almost half my living expenses are paid from dividends, interest, and capital gains on my investment portfolio. The other half of my living expenses are paid from a small pension and Social Security. I manage my wife's and my own portfolios as well as the portfolio in which I invested my grandson's inheritance from his deceased father.
About five hours ago (9 April 2018 10:14 UTC), bitcoin fell off a cliff. It dropped $268.36 in 18 minutes. How can anything be a currency for use in financial transactions if it is so volatile? How can you price goods and services with such volatility?
This is NOT Twitter. Please do not use obscure abbreviations.
I do not own a smart phone. I do not even own a dumb phone. I can still order movie tickets from Fandango via my PC.
No, I am not a Luddite. My entire 40+ year career was in computer software. I just do not have the need to be in constant contact 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.