Potentially the longest thread in history...

[S0ULphIRE]

So I bought my Nan a new amp for her lounge, but I can't figure out how to get it to intelligently get the amp to play the sound from the TV via ARC correctly. Currently seemingly randomly maps to one of the amp inputs, e.g. I have to choose "AV3" before "TV Out" also lights up and sound comes out correctly. But sometimes it'll be AV2, or Audio 1, etc. ARGH.
The user manual came on a CD, turns out I don't have a single CD player in my house gonna watch on lunch break shortly.

Also doubling down on my budget for the next couple months to get my CC paid off in full, it's dragged on since I had to put a surprise 5k on it when I bought my house...down to 2k again now but high time it ****ed off already. Pretty sure I've had to pay close to 1k in interest payments this year total

 

[Spud1200]

Over the past week, I have been playing with setting up an XP Box. Been really fun and challenging.

At one point I was back and forward between two PCs setting up after downloading drivers and doing manual installs. Figuring out Anti-Malware as well for XP has been interesting.

I have too admit and I must apologize for my slating of Windows users. Thing is I lost a lot of confidence and trust in Microsoft over the issues with Win 10 and users privacy but getting back in too the scene hopefully stating with XP and next I', gonna look at Windows 7 Legit copy so I need to get my hands on an clean ISO and pay for a Legit Key.

Home labing is pretty cool when you have the time and setting things up and be challenging but its pleasurable and at the end rewarding.

I kinda guess and have learned the hard way at the end of the day; even tho Microsoft isn't the best with a lot of things being a profit organization, its kinda like all out their. What I mean by that is their is no better than the other. If it serves a purpose then its just as good as the rest. Microsoft produce multi million $$ OS and they obviously know what they are doing better than someone like me. Its kinda ll the same really.

Kinda learned the hard way with that.

Still thinking what I can do with my servers. I have two racks and I'm thinking pfSense on one & finding a reason to use Ubuntu on the other.. That means research. Cool eh ..

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Apparently I'll be able to get a new internet connection around the middle of September this year means I get to choose between ~46Mbps or ~80Mbps average speeds for $70 or $90 per month. Which is crap, but I'm already paying $70/mo for ~4Mbps soooo I'll call it a win at bare minimum I at least get a ~42Mbps upgrade in speed for no extra cost.

 

[Trotter]

Apparently I'll be able to get a new internet connection around the middle of September this year means I get to choose between ~46Mbps or ~80Mbps average speeds for $70 or $90 per month. Which is crap, but I'm already paying $70/mo for ~4Mbps soooo I'll call it a win at bare minimum I at least get a ~42Mbps upgrade in speed for no extra cost.

Bud, you need to do some research on EPB in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and then move there/here. Seriously. An all fiber ISP, the first gigabit ISP in the US. With your experience you should be able to walk right in on a nice salary.

Chattanooga is a decent place to live. Nice sized city, fairly low cost of living (because it is in the South), Atlanta is an hour and a half down the Interstate, Nashville is an hour and a half up I-24, and Knoxville is about the same up I-75.

Plus Nukem lives just north of Chattanooga and I am about 30 miles NE of it. And with that Aussie accent... well, let's just say you would never be lonely. The US is actually a rather calm place to live overall, but especially in the South. Everyone is always polite and helpful, people say hello on the street, and we only get a taste of bad winter weather. If you want to snow ski you go to Ober Gatlinburg, but there are all kinds of rivers and lakes to water ski on as well. Hell, I could write a 10K word case for moving to my area.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Actually really damn tempting, better tech salaries over there too. Only thing is I really don't think I'd fit in very well lol. I have lots of socialist (aka "communist") leanings and I don't like the "get yours and **** everyone else* attitude that seems extremely prevalent in esp southern areas. It's about as anti australian as you can get.

 

[Spud1200]

Bud, you need to do some research on EPB in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and then move there/here. Seriously. An all fiber ISP, the first gigabit ISP in the US. With your experience you should be able to walk right in on a nice salary.

Chattanooga is a decent place to live. Nice sized city, fairly low cost of living (because it is in the South), Atlanta is an hour and a half down the Interstate, Nashville is an hour and a half up I-24, and Knoxville is about the same up I-75.

Plus Nukem lives just north of Chattanooga and I am about 30 miles NE of it. And with that Aussie accent... well, let's just say you would never be lonely. The US is actually a rather calm place to live overall, but especially in the South. Everyone is always polite and helpful, people say hello on the street, and we only get a taste of bad winter weather. If you want to snow ski you go to Ober Gatlinburg, but there are all kinds of rivers and lakes to water ski on as well. Hell, I could write a 10K word case for moving to my area.

Actually really damn tempting, better tech salaries over there too. Only thing is I really don't think I'd fit in very well lol. I have lots of socialist (aka "communist") leanings and I don't like the "get yours and **** everyone else* attitude that seems extremely prevalent in esp southern areas. It's about as anti australian as you can get.

At the minute I'm paying for 76 Max Down @ £31.50 pcm .. with a minimum of 42 down.

I'm actually getting those speeds as well after checking from dedicated servers and the likes of speedtest.net ...

£31.50 pcm is not bad. Yeah their are cheaper alternatives but I'm settled at the minute on my contract and its going smoothly as I've bumped a many in the past.

Basically pay my bill and all's well. Works out about 35 too 40 bucks.

 

[Trotter]

Actually really damn tempting, better tech salaries over there too. Only thing is I really don't think I'd fit in very well lol. I have lots of socialist (aka "communist") leanings and I don't like the "get yours and **** everyone else* attitude that seems extremely prevalent in esp southern areas. It's about as anti australian as you can get.

Believe you me, we have some who are more Marxist than old Karl himself. PP and I are examples more along the conservative viewpoint. Most of the youth tend to be left leaning, but most eventually grow out of it .

Capitalism is really not a bad thing. If you come up with an idea and make it happen then you ought to be the one to reap the benefits/profits from it. For example, I came across some items while traveling that were not available in my own area. I bought up what I could, brought them back, and then sold them for a nice markup. I sold out within an hour or so even with the price increase because there was a demand that had no supply.

Same goes for companies. If they are putting out products or services people want then more power to them. If they are trying to pay crappy wages then people won't work there. It all works out for the most part.

 

[Yami]

Capitalism is really not a bad thing. If you come up with an idea and make it happen then you ought to be the one to reap the benefits/profits from it.

Funny thing is, I agree that capitalism is not really a bad thing, but my own personal belief is it should benefit everyone. I'd be happier to live somewhere where tax upon my earnings is higher than the 20% it currently is for me here, provided the money is spent on things that benefit everyone like roads, medical care, etc. I should get the greatest portion of the benefits of my success, of course, but if it doesn't benefit anyone other than me what's the point?

My ideal society would be something like a 50% tax rate, where all tax money is spent to a maximal efficiency via AI oversight and analysis of need, to eliminate corruption, waste, etc. that tends to come with governments that have lots of money to spend. Half your money goes towards things that you want to have and do, and half goes towards making a good society that you want to live in (of course there's the issue of "Who programs the AI" etc., but that's the general idea).

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Believe you me, we have some who are more Marxist than old Karl himself. PP and I are examples more along the conservative viewpoint. Most of the youth tend to be left leaning, but most eventually grow out of it .

Capitalism is really not a bad thing. If you come up with an idea and make it happen then you ought to be the one to reap the benefits/profits from it. For example, I came across some items while traveling that were not available in my own area. I bought up what I could, brought them back, and then sold them for a nice markup. I sold out within an hour or so even with the price increase because there was a demand that had no supply.

Same goes for companies. If they are putting out products or services people want then more power to them. If they are trying to pay crappy wages then people won't work there. It all works out for the most part.

I like capitalism too haha, it's a necessary component IMO, but not american style. It's the reason why 130 million in the US don't even have $400 spare for emergencies, or why 40 million officially live in poverty.

It's easy to provide examples where pure capitalism falls down, e.g. lets say crappy wages. I'm Joe living in Poor Town, don't have many skills or too much brain power, so options are limited to blue collar jobs. Turns out there's a lot of people like Joe in Poor Town, so competition for good paying jobs is fierce; hundreds of applicants per position. Joe's out of money and in no place to bargain, so ends up accepting a ****ty offer from one of the big companies that pays $11/hr with no benefits. There's literally no reason for that company to offer Joe more; if he quits, there's plenty more desperate people to be exploited.

Capitalism is a system designed to make the *company* (aka the ceo/owners/shareholders) the most money, screw everything else. If they can lower wages without hurting the company, they will. If they can dump **** into a river instead of paying to have it properly disposed, they will. And that's a huge problem, especially when the company(s) get big enough to form a monopoly or oligopoly like in Joe's situation; he has no bargaining power against them, it's either work for ****ty wages or be homeless.

I just see too many morally bankrupt business owners who are *more* than happy to exploit those under them to ever defend unchecked capitalism. Even in Aus where we're undeniably more left-leaning than the US, we somehow have thriving businesses

To take your buy/sell venture, there's nothing wrong with that and you're to be applauded for your initiative and your eye for spotting an opening in that market. Pure capitalism says you keep all the money you just earned. A slightly modified version says hang on, how did you travel between those locations? On a road funded by everyone in the country. Shouldn't they get something back for that? You say yeah that's fair enough, here's a cut (aka tax). Everything else is just an extension of that thought to try and preserve a fair and just system

 

[PP Mguire]

A slightly modified version says hang on, how did you travel between those locations? On a road funded by everyone in the country. Shouldn't they get something back for that? You say yeah that's fair enough, here's a cut (aka tax).

Privatized sales should not be taxed unless that's how you make a living. Then you file a 1099 anyways and your earnings as a whole are taxed.

The big thing here is, most people, even in this country, don't know that the federal government doesn't supply the amenities that they think. Let's take for instance my wages which are taxed a hefty 22%. The federal government here doesn't supply funding or materials for the roads, emergency services, hospitals, schools, utilities, etc. That is all out of state tax. That 22% goes to services like welfare, social security, military, etc. Things of which I won't either immediately benefit from or otherwise won't utilize or get to benefit from. On top of that, I'm forced more cut of my check to pay for health insurance. When I make purchases I'm further taxed 8% on sales tax which then goes to the state. That tax goes to said services that I do immediately benefit from. So yea, said private sale should not be taxed. Further taxing me on something that is already paid for with prior taxation would not be fair and just.